Name: Alyona Kryvulyak
Age: 27
Education: National Pedagogical University, Social Protection
Profession: Director of the national hot lines department at the La Strada-Ukraine women’s rights center
Did you know? She broke up with an abusive boyfriend and now helps others do the same.
When someone calls Alyona Kryvulyak on her mobile, first thing they hear is the upbeat melody of Dan Balan’s song “Freedom!” This is a perfect self-introduction by this brave Ukrainian woman, who helps victims of domestic violence and human trafficking break free of abusers.
She also spends a lot of time on the phone. Having started at La Strada as an intern in 2011, she played a vital role in launching two national hotlines that offer free counseling and legal consulting to victims of domestic violence, discrimination and human trafficking. Besides managing the hotlines, she serves as a consultant for the children’s hotline.
The national children’s hotline received 45,000 calls last year. Kryvulyak says her work may be heartbreaking, but it brings a lot of satisfaction when she succeeds in helping children and teenagers suffering from domestic abuse.
She still remembers a call from a 15-year-old boy during her shift three months ago. “He asked if he could cry. I was taken aback. He told me that his father regularly beat him, and his mother threatened to place him in a mental hospital,” she recollects. “The boy said: ‘Perhaps it would be better if I were dead?’”
Another hotline serves victims of domestic violence, gender discrimination and human trafficking. Most of the calls come from women abused by their partners.
And since Russia launched its war in the Donbas in 2014, La Strada has faced increasing cases of domestic violence in the families of war veterans. The police are not helpful, Kryvulyak says.
“If the wife of a former soldier reports to police that he beats her, the policemen scold her: ‘He has been to war. He went through terrible things. Can’t you understand what he survived? He is a hero.’”
The hotline has been working 24/7 since 2016. Last year it received 38,000 calls.
In Ukraine, domestic violence is perceived as a private matter. It is hard enough to get victims speak out or seek help, let alone convince them to leave abusive partners.
And unfortunately, Ukraine doesn’t have a legal framework. The Council of Europe’s so-called Istanbul Convention, designed to counter the problem, hasn’t been ratified by Ukraine’s parliament.
Backed by the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, lawmakers decided the document was against “Christian values” and “Ukrainian identity” for talking about sexual orientation and gender-based violations.
So Ukraine has a long way to go. But La Strada won’t give up, Kryvulyak says. Outside of work, Kryvulyak loves to travel and spend time outdoors to take her mind off the job, since talking to victims on a daily basis is still exhausting.
