Announcer and now, please welcome to the stage, executive director of the Georgetown Institute for women, peace and security. [applause] good afternoon. And a very, very warm welcome to each and every one of you to georgetown. And to this special program in honor of the first lady of ukraine, Olena Zelenska. [applause] she has become the visible face of a society shattered by war, doing all that she can to help the ukrainian people stand their ground against russias unprovoked aggression which continues to rain death and destruction on civilians. Theres the kidnapping of ukrainian children from their families. And a determination to stamp out ukraines independence, freedom and identity. We also come together today to renew our individual and collective commitment to support ukraine. As president zelenskyy said, human morality must win this war. Everyone in the world who values freedom, who values human life, who believes that people must win, our success depends not only on us ukrainians, he said, but on the people to the extent they exist through the entire moral space of this world. We want to preserve that moral space because much is at stake. Much is at stake for democracy, for human rights, and for the values we all cherish. A very special welcome to all the members of the diplomatic corps who are here, to the u. S. Government officials, to the dean of our school of foreign service, to the representatives of the ukrainian american community, and to the members of the ukrainian delegation. And we are honored to have metropolitan archbishop of the ukrainian catholic of philadelphia with us. Welcome. We especially want to salute our students from ukraine. They are here from all over. They are here from throughout ukraine and i ask all of them to please stand. [applause] it is now my great personal pleasure to introduce president john degioia. He is deeply committed to public service, as is exemplified in skwro pblg r georgetown in georgetowns credo, men and men for others. Hes been unstinting in his support for ukraine. He has been ensuring scholarships for students from ukraine, and encouraging discussions to keep a public focus on what is happening in ukraine. So, please welcome president degioia. [applause] pres. Degioia thank you for bringing us together this afternoon and guiding the institute for women, peace and security and its work to promote women as catalysts for peace building. Good afternoon. Its my privilege to be with all of you as we welcome the first lady of ukraine, Olena Zelenska, for this special conversation. To the ukrainian delegation, to our ukrainian students, our distinguished guests, and the members of our Georgetown Community joining us this afternoon, thank you for your presence. Over these past 19 months since the unprovoked fullscale russian invasion began, the impacts of this war have been i pheps. We have been witness to the displacement of children and their families from their homes, the disruption of education, the destruction of institutions, infrastructure and entire regions. And the enormous toll this has had for the ukrainian people. We have also seen extraordinary resilience and creativity, a ukrainian people who continue to fight to pursue education, to care for one another, who support their country and its freedom in any way they can. Were honored to have first Lady Zelenska here with us during this special visit to washington, d. C. , to share her perspective and reflections on this moment in her country. She has provided invaluable leadership in her role as first lady and has become an important voice for peace in our international community. Were grateful for the focus she has placed on families, children and education. Were honored by her gift of a set of books to georgetown as part of the ukrainian book shelf project, which seeks to share ukrainian literature with libraries around the world. Her efforts, a new National MentalHealth Program entitled, how are you . New trainings for First Responders and counselors. Her engagement with the World Health Organization on a road map for Mental Health and psychological support during war. Providing an example of leadership and service in a time of great turmoil. Her foundation which focuses on health care, education and humanitarian aid has supported the resettlement of 4,000 people, providing Household Essentials to help them rebuild their lives. It has started a campaign for funds to help rebuild hospitals and medical facilities, including a central City Hospital which once served nearly 150,000 people. It is working to provide nearly 39,000 teachers with technology and software to support education. And it has funded a project for ukrainian children focused on addressing grief. We are deeply honored to have first Lady Zelenska here with us this afternoon and we look forward to the reflections she will share with us. Please join me in welcoming to the podium, the first lady of ukraine. [applause] first Lady Zelenska hello, everyone. I will talk to you in ukrainian, so i hope you have your translation. Can turn it on. [speaking another language] world about ukraine, tell about whats happening to us. We are very grateful for this. Thank you. Our embassy is located rate here in this wonderful place, georgetown, and i know that you work a lot with them. Thank you for this as well. I am sure that this is a sort of Classical University spirit, whether people want to get to the bottom of things, to understand, to research, and thats very important. In the time of hardship that we are experiencing. And i think that it is exactly the people who can feel, who can sincerely feel, deeply feel the injustices of the world, who take them as a challenge for themselves, they have a future and countries like this have a future, countries who raise these kinds of people. So its a happy start of the new Academic Year and i hope it will be interesting for you. And the Academic Year also started for our students in ukraine very recently. Unfortunately on the very first day the Academic Year was interrupted by dozens of air raid alerts across the country. You may have seen the photos of our first graders who went to school for the very first time, spent their first day of school in bomb shelters. Over the last two years, the russian shelling in ukraine damaged 81 universities. And thats just buildings, they can be rebuilt. Whats worse is that people are dying. We can recall the recent case whether a Russian Missile struck the center of town and killed to Teaching Staff and a student. And it was only so days before the first of september, the start of the new Academic Year. And each university in ukraine, now we have students who have been killed, who went to the front line to defend ukraine. And theyre remembered by their universities. But unfortunately we cannot bring them back to life. And im looking at you, and i can see our students. I dont think that you are that different. You have one particular trait in common, thats caring. And empathy and wanting to change things for the better. For the better. And this is why it feels so nice. We are now opening the 40th ukrainian book shelf, its a nice, round number. And its a project that we start in various libraries of the world and we have various types of books, fiction, historical literature, etc. , and we want people to know a ukraine from firsthand knowledge of ukraine, what were like, what we think, where our roots are. And this is, i think, the foundation for understanding of other countries and other people. In fact, books are another very important thing in the confrontation with the enemy. Our people are fighting for their survival and so are our books. Dozens of libraries have been burnt down by Russian Missiles. And when we hand over books, we are basically saving them physically, were giving them a chance at life. And people support books and books sustain us as well. And you can see you can always see people reading in bomb shelters during air raid alerts because books are some kind of a mental shelter for people, a mental escape. You can see books in the hands of our [indiscernible] because this is something that reminds them of home, or refugees. You can see our soldiers reading in the trenches because this is, the least for a few moments, its normal life again. And i think when people in ukraine, especially, convenient a photo of one of have seen a photo of one of our soldiers who was reading a book by timothy snyder, he was very happy to find out about it. He comes to ukraine often. And i think that really is a testament to how ukrainians treat p books and for me its a great honor that you will have some of our books as well. When we are asked what ukraine is fighting for, what it is defending, it is exactly this. To make sure that the books will not be burning like the famous book by ray bradberry, so the people wouldnt have to read in bomb shelters, that students just like you would be able to study peacefully in their own country instead of dying from bombs in the streets of their own cities. And these books teach us, literature teaching us that evil, aggression, have to be punished. This should not be precedent in the world. This is what ukraine is fighting for and i believe that with the help of people who care around the world, this will come to pass. Thank you. [applause] last year, our institute for women, peace and security honored ms. Zelenska with the Hillary Clinton award for her exceptional leadership. Her tireless efforts to rally the world to support ukraine in its struggle for human rights, freedom and democracy against the brutal assault. And for speaking out for those who cannot speak for themselves, forgiving voice to their pain, suffering and loss. And for leading massive efforts for humanitarian assistance. Secretary clinton and president degioia could not present the actual award to her last year because we were honoring her virtually. She was in kyiv. And so today we are proud to present Olena Zelenska with the Hillary Clinton award for advancing women in peace and security. [applause] the mrs. Zelenska has agreed it take some questions. So i will begin with a few and then well turn to our students. You just described the difficulties that the ukrainian people are enduring, the death and destruction, the missiles that fly, not knowing where they will hit. How are they holding up . We are in awe of their resilience and unity. But how are they holding up . First Lady Zelenska on the one hand, its a difficult question. On the other, its a very simple question. Ill start with a simple answer. Its a matter of survival, we want to live. And thats why youre going to fight and youre going to hold on as long as possible in order to get a chance at life much what helps us to hold on is were actually studying this, were studying our resilience. And theres a number of things that helps us to keep it together. Gratefulness, because we can feel we feel grateful to the whole world for not leaving us to our own devices. We get support, we get help. Thankfulness is something that makes us more resilient. Thats also mutual support. We need to act. And the majority of ukrainians currently volunteer in one way or another. Theres nobody who is not helping somebody else, not helping the refugees, donating something from their income to the armed forces, people are doing this because it helps them psychologically as well. And also i think contact with each other helps. Communicating helps. Because psychologists tell us, we are social animals and we need to Stay Together. We need to keep together. And Victor Frankel is a famous therapist, psychologist, who survived in a nazi death camp. He said, in order to survive, you have to remember that your current hardship and suffering is lesser than you really are. That your life will go on after, after the suffering. And you need to remember this and this is how you survive. And i think that we are sort of carrying that inside. And also what sustains us is that we Stay Together. A lot of people who i know that have left ukraine, who are trying to save themselves and their children, i know theyre suffering because they are not able to come back. Because the situation does not allow them. And being inside the country, we can probably say its easier for us because psychologically were together, were not torn away from one another. So to Stay Together and to foster this resilience and to believe in victory, and this belief does not fade. This is what we need. This faith keeps us afloat. Youve often spoken about the role that women in ukraine are playing now through the war. Many are fighters in the security sector. Mothers have been left without fathers having to mind their children now and support them. Others are engaged in humanitarian assistance, documenting war crimes, engaged in the media. In so many different pursuits. And they are were all familiar with the diplomatic advocates who have been coming to the United States to tell us what ukraine needs. Youve said that it will be difficult when this terrible war ends for women to go back to their more traditional roles. Because the roles are now changing in society. Tell us about ukraine and womens leadership. Because we often dont hear about that. First Lady Zelenska thats the question that actually, i think i talk about a lot. Because you see ukrainian women everywhere. It is a testament to demonstration of equality. Thats become more apparent during the war. Ukrainian women, a lot of families have been separated. Not just doing their job, theyre doing more, they take on more. So it will be very difficult to say that ukrainian women are in equal conditions with the men because theyre doing more. Recently in new york, i took part in a conference about equal wakes for men and women. And we discussed that sometimes it looks like equality, but its only equality in the sense of equal responsibility. We are all responsible, its equal. But in some ways women are losing out. For example, in the area of equal wages, and i believe that Ukrainian Society and the Ukrainian Government are now fully responsible for what is happening, and we are taking responsibility for what is happening and we continue to work to build a society of equal opportunities, even during war. Its a lot more difficult financially, procedurally, but we are going to do it anyway. Since 2018 or 2019 until 2021, ukraine reduced the pay gap from 26 to 18 . Thats a huge leap forward. And we dont want to stop there. We want to do this and we want to continue with this. We need this equality for women to come back. We need to create opportunities, job opportunities, for them. We need to create opportunities for looking after their children comfortably. So that they can go to work and look after their children at the same time. And thankfully its happening in ukraine. The Ukrainian Government adopted a strapbg on equal pay a strategy on equal pay for the period up to 2030 and i am confident it will be implemented. And in this sense, women are very sensitive. Before the largescale invasion, our women mostly were involved in Small Businesses and actually Small Businesses are hit hard first. Small businesses like beauty salons and small shops suffer, theyre destroyed and to rebuild them, thats a huge job. And we need to support women. This is the job of the government. Im sure that the state will come up with this job. Weve heard a lot about the work youre weve heard a lot about the work youre doing. Can you just very quickly, because i know youre pressed for time, tell us what the priorities are . First Lady Zelenska we have three areas, priority areas. Humanitarian assistance, support for education and also support for health care in ukraine. Last winter was extremely difficult for attacks against the Energy System and you know about the blackouts and particularly hard hit were the residents of areas close to the front lines and they needed things for heating and electricity generators, etc. , and we provided those and well keep providing them for to keep people warm. Now the foundation has a project that is aimed at supporting schools as well. Because the situation in ukrainian schools is such, only 1 3 of ukrainian children go to school because they have a bomb shelter. If there is no bomb shelter in a school, children cannot attend it. The school is not open. So a lot of children do distance learning. This is why we have a project currently, we are making comfortable shelters, bomb shelters, eight schools are now part of this project. And we are raising money to expand the program. The hospital that you just heard about from the president , thats a terrible situation. We need the money to rebuild it. To make sure this community continues to survive. 150,000 people were served by this hospital before the war. Now people have no access to health care. So thats one of the projects as well. And also we look after big foster families. Thats a strategic thing for ukraine. Because we are now moving away from big institutions for orphans, boarding schools for orphans. We are looking to foster families, familytype homes. These are families that will take on five to 10 children to raise and thats the priority for my foundation. Among them, theres a lot of people who have lost their homes close to the front lines and have to move to a different region in ukraine. So you can manage, even just to transport a large family with 10 children, thats already a big job. When they come to a new place, the conditions are very often bad. Were currently building 14 houses for these foster families where they can feel comfortable and we want to continue with this project as well. We are helping these families with anything, any kind of essential any essentials for their children. We give them a chance for rest and relaxation. This year, 1,500 children and their parents were able to relax in the mountains. They were able to go on holiday. Because these parents never have a holiday. They dont have an annual leave. Their life with 10 children does not have an opportunity to go somewhere. This is why we created this opportunity for them, to have a holiday together where they can breathe out, look at the sun and take a break from the air raid alerts. We have a lot of projects i can keep talking about for hours, so i will stop there. [indiscernible] tremendously engaged [indiscernible] were going to turn to our students from ukraine now for two questions, please. Im an International Student from ukraine. Kyiv. And im also [indiscernible] and my question for you, social and humanitarian sector in ukraine, how can we students and specialists in ukraine, how can we help to look after the most vulnerable sectors in ukraine . First Lady Zelenska thank you very much [indiscernible] thank you for identifying this as a priority as well at all. And of course anyone with a conscience, anyone who is aware in the world, have an opportunity to help ukraine. You can spread true information about what is happening. You can tell people about what is happening in ukraine, you can tell them the truth. Sometimes thats difficult because we can see a mass effort propaganda from russia so you can encourage people to look up to their own information hygiene, thats very important. And i would really like for you, student from ukraine, to be our ambassadors in those communities where you live and amongst the people that you work with or study with. We want you to come back home, we really want to you come back home and im sure that the country will make do Everything Possible to for you to come back. Of course security is first and this is why were fighting for our longawaited victory. So all of our children, all of our adults can come back. And the next thing, more opportunities for our young people to develop in ukraine. Startups, own businesses, interesting organizations to work for. I think this is the what we adults need to think about right now and the leaders of the country need to think about. Im sure they will. Everyone who is aware in the world understands what is happening in ukraine and its very important not to lose this focus of attention. Because in fact if, if this does not happen, if we were to imagine that ukraine is defeated, i think that it would be a defeat for the whole world. That would mean that if you have opportunities and resources you can do anything you want you can be want. You can be a tyrant. You can seize other country, other territories. Under these situations means that no one is safe in this world. No one can feel safe in a world where might is right. Who is strong is in charge. And this is why we need to keep the focus of the attention of the world on this impossibly tragic and terrifying situation that is happening to ukraine right now. And i understand there may be some fatigue. Of course its not very nice to hear bad news all the time. But turning a blind eye would mean to turn your back to your own future. N| so its amoral and thats important to say. [applause] shes on a very intense schedule. Meeting her husband, theyll be going to the white house and then hell be making a major address. So were grateful, so grateful that you could come to georgetown and spend some time with us. I ask that you not leave your seats until the ukrainian delegation leaves and please leave your headsets on the chairs. Thank you to everyone who had anything to do with this program. [applause] and thank you especially to the first lady. [cheers and applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023]