{"id":304853,"date":"2025-11-25T01:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T01:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/304853\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T01:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T01:00:14","slug":"canadas-feminist-foreign-aid-in-action-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/304853\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s feminist foreign aid in action in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\tRead: 7 min\t\t<\/p>\n

On a fog-shrouded morning in early November, I slip into the backseat of a white sedan that\u2019s waiting for me, just outside a hotel in downtown Kharkiv.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a guest of the hotel; yet, the two women in the car had asked to meet me here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try not to park near our offices,\u201d explains one of the women, Olena Shustova, as we drive away. \u201cOur colleagues from another organization were targeted a month ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who work for organizations like HALO, who are clearing the land after Russians mined it \u2014 even they get targeted,\u201d she says, referring to The HALO Trust, the world\u2019s oldest and largest mine-clearance organization.<\/p>\n

Shustova is media manager at HALO, which has been operating in Ukraine since 2015. She and the car\u2019s driver, Valeria Shumska, have invited me \u2014 a Canadian journalist \u2014 to spend the day with them, witnessing HALO\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

That work includes training Ukraine\u2019s women to make their country\u2019s land safe again. Canada has played a part in this work. In early 2024, the Trudeau government \u2014 which had a feminist foreign-aid strategy<\/a> \u2014 provided HALO with a $5-million grant to support its female demining efforts. Today, the future of such grants look uncertain.<\/p>\n

Shustova tells me she has seen HALO become more female over her years at the organization. \u201cWhen I started two-and-a-half years ago, there were much less [women],\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Until 2017, demining was on Ukraine\u2019s list of 450 occupations prohibited<\/a> for women. Today, women make up 30 per cent of HALO\u2019s 1,500 Ukrainian staff.<\/p>\n

\u201c[D]epending on your experience, your aspirations, your plans, you can become a deminer,\u201d says Shumska.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying that it\u2019s going to be easy, and not every woman is ready to do that \u2026 it\u2019s physically demanding. But if you are ready to do that, you will be able to take the opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Karolina Prysiazhniuk, a deminer for HALO Trust, for takes a break from manual clearance using a metal detector near a minefield in Hrakove village, just outside of Kharkiv, Ukraine; Nov. 5, 2025. | Alexandra Keeler<\/p>\n

Land back<\/p>\n

For years, even before all-out war began, Russia has been littering Ukraine\u2019s fields, roads and forests with mines, booby-traps and trip-wire explosives.<\/p>\n

These efforts have turned Ukraine into one of the world\u2019s most contaminated countries, some reports<\/a> say. It is estimated that as much as a quarter of Ukraine\u2019s territory \u2014 equivalent to the Canadian Maritimes in size \u2014 is mined.<\/p>\n

The effect is devastating. As of May, explosive ordnance had killed nearly 500 people and injured another 1,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The contaminated lands mean farmers cannot plant crops, families cannot rebuild their homes and children cannot play safely outside. It also threatens global food security, undermining Ukraine\u2019s agricultural output and role as Europe\u2019s so-called \u201cbreadbasket.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, Ukraine\u2019s Ministry of Economy set a goal of clearing 80 per cent of Ukraine\u2019s contaminated lands within 10 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is where HALO comes in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

HALO begins its demining work by interviewing villagers who lived under Russian occupation, pinpointing the enemy\u2019s former military positions and past mine incidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot about talking. It\u2019s a lot about building communication with local people,\u201d says Shumska as we navigate a pothole-riddled road.<\/p>\n

After an hour\u2019s drive, we reach Hrakove, a village that was under Russian control from early 2022 until this September and is known to have contaminated schools, hospitals and roads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We stop once we reach a six-acre, scrubgrass-covered field on the outskirts of the village. Dozens of red skull-and-crossbone signs dot the ground, warning of mines.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cStop, mines!\u201d warns a sign in a large minefield on the outskirts of Hrakove village, near Kharkiv, Ukraine; Nov. 5, 2025. | Alexandra Keeler<\/p>\n

In the distance, five female surveyors are moving methodically across the terrain. My guides lead me to a uniformed woman, Liliia Hainatulina, who is studying a map. At just 31, she is HALO\u2019s task group commander.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn August 2022, there was an accident \u2014 a car hit an anti-vehicle mine,\u201d she tells me, pointing to her handdrawn map.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that was not the only incident. Since Ukrainian forces liberated the village on Sept. 7, civilians, farm animals and equipment have all set off mines.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the military performed a mine-sweep near critical infrastructure, the rest is up to HALO.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team maps explosives using surveys, satellite imagery and drones. Drones with thermal and multispectral cameras are used to detect some of the better hidden ones.<\/p>\n

Next, machines are used to clear vegetation and neutralize tripwires. Human deminers remove surface mines by hand, while remote-controlled excavators tackle terrain considered too risky or too vast for people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to \u2026 return the condition of our land in Ukraine to the condition it was before 2020, so that people can safely walk and drive in our land, and so that a farmer who decides to cultivate their food does not \u2026 [get] killed,\u201d says Hainatulina.<\/p>\n

\"\"HALO Trust task group commander Liliia Hainatulina, explains manual and mechanical clearance operations in the farmland of Hrakove, near Kharkiv, Ukraine; Nov. 5, 2025. | Alexandra Keeler<\/p>\n

Gender working group<\/p>\n

For nearly four decades, HALO has been clearing landmines, cluster munitions and other explosives from some of the world\u2019s most dangerous conflict zones.<\/p>\n

Its work began in Afghanistan but today spans 30 countries. The non-profit employs more than 11,000 people and generates roughly US$200 million in revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Its expansion into Ukraine has been supported by international donors, including Canada.<\/p>\n

Samuel Fricker, a Canadian projects officer with HALO who is based in Langley, B.C., says he is glad to see Canadian dollars being put toward HALO.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who pays taxes in Canada, I\u2019m \u2026 happy with where the money goes,\u201d he tells me in a HALO team video call days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I work in this field is because of how tangible the impact is. You are seeing landmines being removed. You\u2019re seeing genuine lives saved,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s $5-million contribution accounts for a small fraction of HALO\u2019s $60-million annual Ukraine budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In keeping with the Trudeau government\u2019s focus on gender-equity initiatives, this money has been used to help HALO launch a 20-member Gender Working Group. This group is responsible for gathering staff feedback, refining field policies and connecting HALO\u2019s teams with military leadership and government \u2014 to influence workplace inclusivity measures nationwide.<\/p>\n

Daria Hapirova, a gender expert at HALO, says training women to demine is crucial because hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men have joined the military.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, there is no time for us to act in a gender-neutral way,\u201d she says on the call. \u201c[W]ithout women right now, Ukrainian mine action wouldn\u2019t function.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hapirova says there are halo effects to promoting gender equality in a niche sector like demining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started to change our uniform sets, for example, to make it more inclusive, and not only suitable for female bodies, but also to be more practical and more inclusive for different shapes of man\u2019s bodies,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fricker says HALO is also more effective at its work when women are included.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Households headed by women \u2014 often widows or those whose husbands are fighting \u2014 are more willing to share information with female surveyors, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interactions are much, much improved by having that diversity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s $5-million grant ended in August, and HALO currently has no ongoing Canadian funding for Ukraine. \u201cWe are in discussions with [Global Affairs Canada] about potential future options for follow-on funding,\u201d Shustova says.<\/p>\n

But the political winds have shifted. On Nov. 23, Prime Minister Mark Carney said<\/a> at a press conference in Johannesburg that Canada no longer has a feminist foreign policy.<\/p>\n

He added, however, that gender equality will remain an \u201caspect\u201d of Canada\u2019s broader international agenda.<\/p>\n

\"\"HALO Trust drone pilot Valentyna Vystoropska scopes out dugouts and enclosed trenches, detecting hidden explosives with drone-mounted high-resolution, thermal and multispectral cameras; Nov. 5, 2025 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. | Alexandra Keeler<\/p>\n

With her bare hands<\/p>\n

After strapping on body armour aprons and polycarbonate visors, I head with my hosts Shustova and Shumska to another field in Hrakove.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There, deminers are at work with their hands.<\/p>\n

I watch Olena Zhornyk, a 39-year-old former shoe designer and mother of two, crawl through the grass, one bare hand extended, feeling for non-metallic tripwires. This hands-on method is used only for hazards that technology cannot detect, Shumska explains.<\/p>\n

During her break, Zhornyk tells me she has become acutely aware of all the threats around her, so much so that she rarely lets her own children roam outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey like being outside, but I\u2019m not letting them go,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause I [do this] work, I can see how many mines there can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sense of accomplishment that comes from making the land safer is, she says, immense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a feeling that you cannot compare to anything else when you find some explosive ordinance and remove it \u2026 [knowing] your children will not have a risk anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Deminer Olena Zhornyk carefully performs manual clearance with her bare hands to check for plastic trip-wires; Nov. 5, 2025. | Alexandra Keeler<\/p>\n

Further afield, three large craters mark where anti-vehicle mines have detonated. A whistle signals the start of dangerous work, so we don protective visors.<\/p>\n

Teams of two begin to move slowly along narrow paths, scanning the ground ahead of them with metal detectors. I find myself holding my breath, needlessly, it turns out. Their search turns up nothing.<\/p>\n

After two whistles signal a break, Karolina Prysiazhniuk, 32, comes to speak with me. Prysiazhniuk used to work as a digital product designer \u2014 and says she much prefers her current work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [I tell] someone that I\u2019m a deminer, [they say] \u2018My God, are you serious? Wow, that\u2019s cool,\u2019 and I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh yeah, I know\u2019,\u201d Prysiazhniuk tells me, giggling. \u201cSometimes I brag about it, but \u2026 why not? I\u2019m doing my part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond bragging rights, she says her work has given her a story to someday tell her grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese times are awful \u2014 but it\u2019s happening. You need to be part of it and do something for the [greater] good \u2026 for the future, for democracy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 50 years \u2026 your grandchildren will ask, \u2018Grandma, what were you doing during the war?\u2019 And what would you tell them?\u201d<\/p>\n

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