In Solidarity We Stand

Today marks four brutal years since Russia’s unprovoked and devastating full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We cannot bring ourselves to write about today as history; it remains an ongoing and painful reality.

When we created FemSMS in May 2022 we did not imagine that this brutal war would stretch into a fourth year. Like many, we believed — perhaps needed to believe — that international resolve would arrest what felt unthinkable. While it seems now that four years is long enough for headlines to thin, we know that for those living through bombardment, displacement, and grief, there is no such thinning.

As we mark this anniversary, we are launching our FemSMS app with hope that it offers solace to those living through the continued Russian bombardment that destroys Ukrainian infrastructure, placing entire cities under repeated attack and energy systems fragile or failing, while families are displaced again and again, constantly reorganizing their lives around uncertainty, outages, and interruption. It is impossible to understand how people endure this — or the brutality of regimes that show no regard for human life.

Through FemSMS we are in touch every day with women, in all their diversity, who continue to raise children, support elderly parents, and care for those who are alone or ill, doing so from places of exile and from inside Ukraine — including frontline regions — under the constant threat of bombs, drones, and near-constant air raid sirens.

Last week, our dear colleague and FemSMS coordinator wrote from Odesa, where she and her family had been without power for days: “It’s one thing to read the news on social media, and a completely different thing to live through it personally.” And later, in the same note, “…the situation is still absolutely catastrophic.”

Children study in a cafe because there is a generator and internet



Those who are lucky live in buildings with a shelter with power outlets, microwave and kettle



For people who do not have facilities in their buildings, big tents are set up around the city where people can get warm, charge their devices, and eat and drink something hot

Under this prolonged strain, FemSMS has evolved from an emergency response into something more deeply woven into daily life. What began as a co-created, low-bandwidth line of care, rooted in compassion, has become a consistent thread of support shaped through listening and sustained through trust. Our extensive on-going evaluation of FemSMS consistently shows messages arrive as reminders for people that they are not alone in navigating exhaustion, fear, and responsibility.

The development of the FemSMS mobile app, the design of which commenced in 2024, has been made possible through the committed support of Project Kesher and Project Kesher Ukraine, whose partnership has allowed us to build something durable at a time when durability feels increasingly rare. The app carries forward the original survivor-informed SMS model and makes it more accessible in conditions where infrastructure is targeted and connectivity is unstable; it includes a library of resources, grounding practices, safety information, and emergency contacts, with offline functionality designed for environments where power and signal cannot be assumed. It widens the ecosystem that already exists — currently in Ukrainian, with key elements in English and French — and will continue to evolve as the needs of women living through crisis evolve.

Across Ukraine, FemSMS now connects with more than 10,000 women — including LGBTQIA+ individuals, single women, mothers in care centers, elderly women, activists, and community leaders — and our evaluation data shows that 89% of participants report increased self-compassion, while 100% report improved ability to manage stress and burnout. These are not abstract metrics; they are evidence that consistent, trauma-informed communication strengthens psychological resilience in contexts where larger systems fracture.

On this day of heartbreak and remembrance, with all that we have, we renew our commitment to show up — to commit each day to compassion, connection, and love as disciplined practice, as medicine in the face of war, authoritarianism, and brutal violence.

As poet Andrea Gibson wrote, “everything that you are feeling, name it love.” Even rage.

All pictures credit: ©Maria Kudimova