How do you talk about peacebuilding during an ongoing war? It’s hard and challenging, but 20 Ukrainian women gathered in Lviv from 17-20 November 2025 and did just that.

It is not about ‘external’ peace, it’s a process within society and one we want to create for ourselves.

PeaceWomen Across the Globe, in collaboration with Center Women's Perspective, conducted a training on "Peacebuilding in Action" with 20 women leaders from communities directly affected by the war of aggression. The women, who came from Ternopil, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Dnipro, Kiev, Kherson, Kharkiv and Lviv, are members of the network Call for Action: Field Implementation (CAFI). Together, they strengthened their negotiation, communication and advocacy skills with support from our director Deborah Schibler and our specialist Peacebuilding During Armed Conflict Laura Reymond-Joubin.

The women talked about what peacebuilding is. One participant’s conclusion echoed what other participants expressed: "It is not about ‘external’ peace, it’s a process within society and one we want to create for ourselves.”

Insights from the workshop

An important insight from the training: peacebuilding happens every day and takes place continuously in communities. “These were very profound days of reflection on the process of peace that begins within us, continues at home, and then flows into the streets of our cities,” said Iryna Trokhym from Center Women’s Perspectives.

In three short videos, Iryna, Olga Oliinyk, head of the NGO Women Zen, and Galyna Tselovalnychenko and Olha Shulik from the NGO Common Goodness, talk about what peacebuilding means to them.

Watch the videos on our YouTube channel.