First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska met with representatives of Spouses of Ukrainian Diplomats Association.
As part of the Conference of Ambassadors, chaired by the President of Ukraine and attended by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the 3rd meeting of the Association, established to implement humanitarian and cultural projects, was held.
28 of its representatives visited the Owl's Nest volunteer hub in Uzhhorod (since 2022, it has processed more than 40,000 requests for humanitarian aid and provides all types of support to IDPs), the Uzhhorod City Maternity Hospital (during the full-scale invasion, female IDPs gave birth to 524 children in the facility). Together with the President's wife, they visited the Ark of Peace children's center, which managed to evacuate 36 children and a group of parents from Mariupol after the outbreak of full-scale war. Currently, 14 adults, 5 teenagers and 18 children live in the center, three of whom became orphans as a result of the hostilities around Mariupol.
Olena Zelenska urged the Association members to join humanitarian projects and initiate their own.
"Volunteering today is the quintessence of the whole country, of everything our people have faced because of the Russian attack: from the need for new housing and job to the need for self-realization, education, and rethinking one's purpose in life. We all need such a rethinking in a broad sense, an answer to the question of what I am doing and what I can do," the President's wife said.
The First Lady emphasized that she proposed to make the implemented and planned humanitarian and cultural projects of the Association (given their social importance) part of the main program of the next Ambassadors' Conference.
"Spouses of Ukrainian diplomats are becoming a separate effective force, just like the world's first ladies, participants of the Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen. Because each of us is able to make a contribution to improve the well-being of people," Olena Zelenska summarized.
