Eugenia Aratovska won the 2016 Terre de Femmes Ukraine Award. In 2015, she set up the “Ukraine Without Waste” NGO.
39-year-old Eugenia Aratovska lives in Kiev in Ukraine, a country that is home to 42.6 million people. She is the Founder and President of “Ukraine Without Waste” (“Україна БЕЗ сміття”), an NGO she set up in 2015. Eugenia believes that protecting our planet is a matter of urgency. We need to take action now. This visionary identified waste recycling as a key factor for change at a time when Ukraine’s public authorities gave very little thought to the issue.
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Translating a vision into action
In 2015, Eugenia began reaching out to businesses in Kiev and encouraging them to set them up their first recycling bins. Backed by a team of six, she rolled out campaigns in schools to raise awareness about recycling and its impact among children and teenagers. She also began working on a guide to eco-changes, putting forward a number of easy-to-implement recycling ideas.
An entrepreneurial woman… And an additional challenge
Women account for 20 to 22% of all entrepreneurs in Ukraine, and Eugenia admits that being a female entrepreneur adds extra complications in a society where chores remain a women’s responsibility. Eugenia works a double, and sometimes even triple day, crammed full of looking after her children, working, and making public and media appearances.
Are you working to protect the environment, too?
Discover the Terre de Femmes Programme that supports projects led by women who are fighting to protect our future and our planet.
