‘Learn Influence: How the School of Digital Civic Literacy Gives IDP Women’s Voice and Feelings of Resistance
In the summer of 2026, the Ukrainian Valkyrie NGO launched the Learn Influence, a digital civil literacy school for women who are internally displaced persons (IDPs). It is a six-month educational program that teaches migrants to act safely and confidently online: to defend themselves in the digital space, to receive public services, to recognize misinformation, to tell their own stories and to influence decisions in their communities.
The first cohort began training on June 17, 2026 and ended it at the end of August with presentations of its own initiatives and the presentation of certificates. The training of the second cohort is currently underway. The project is implemented with the grant support of the Metamorphosis Foundation (Northern Macedonia) within the Digital Spark Call 2026 program.
This blog is about why such a school is needed at all, what happened in the first stage and what the women who have come this way have achieved.
the problem that all started with
Due to the full-scale war, millions of Ukrainian women lost their homes and ordinary lives. Those who have received IDP status are often left alone with an unfamiliar city, new bureaucratic procedures and information chaos.
a digital world that should simplify life, for many migrants becomes another barerom:
- public services ‘went online’, but not everyone knows how to apply for payment or subsidies through ‘action’;
- Fraudulents prey on vulnerable – phishing and ‘IDP assistance’ schemes are aimed primarily at migrants;
- Disinformation Bthere are aiming – hostile narratives deliberately shake the trust of migrants and sow a split in communities;
- Her own voice ‘turns off’ – a woman who has experienced a loss, often does not dare to speak in public, and therefore, her needs remain unheard.
«Ukrainian Valkyrie» sees this problem not as “a low compcomputer literacy ‘, and more deeply as a matter of agency. When a woman is unable to protect her data, receive a proper payment, or refute a fake about migrants, she loses control of her own life. ‘Learn Influence’ returns this control.
Our approach: from survival to influence
NGO ‘Ukrainian Valkyrie’ is a public organization founded in 2023 in Kyiv. She works at the intersection of three areas: the psychological resilience of women in crises, women’s leadership and agency, and the transformation of traumatic experience into social capital. Founder and director Darina Trebukh, researcher of psychological stability of women and author of programs for the transformation of trauma and women’s leadership.
The mission of the organization is simple and at the same time ambitious: to give women tools to build personal and collective resilience – from survival to agent and influence. ‘Learn Influence’ is one of the software products in which this mission is implemented as practically as possible.
Therefore, the school is based on three principles:
- ‘Less theory – more practice’ (landmark 30% explanation / 70% practice). Each lesson is a joint action on your own devices, not a ‘record’ lecture.
- Do no Harm. Many participants have a traumatic experience of forced relocation. Training is conducted supportively, without devaluation and pressure, based on real life situations.
- Each module gives the result ‘on hand’. At the end of each block, the participant creates her own artifact – from security checklist to the submitted application for a microgrant.
What’s inside the program
The school consists of six practical modules – 15 thematic classes and the final hackathon. Classes last for 90 minutes, are held online in Ukrainian and are supplemented by asynchronous work in the Notion hub and support in the Telegram community.
| Module | What about | What does the participant receive? |
|---|---|---|
| Digital Safety and Hygiene | Strong Passwords & Password Managers, 2FA, Protected Messengers, Phishing Recognition and Deffeeks, OSINT Hygiene | Personal security-checklist |
| Interaction with the state online | ‘Action’, electronic signature, social benefits and housing subsidies for IDPs, electronic appeals | Submitted real E-request/appeal |
| Media literacy | Source check, fact-checking, counteraction to Russian narratives, StopFake and VoxCheck | Written analysis of a single fake |
| own voice on social media | Safe Storytelling, Canva, Facebook/Instagram/TikTok, Media Communication | 3 own posts about your experience or community experience |
| Local advocacy | petitions, participation budget, public hearings, work with deputies of local councils, international advocacy | plan of own advocacy initiative |
| Project thinking and fundraising | How to write a small project where to look for microgrants for IDP women, basic budget and logical framework | Application for a microgrant / description of your own project |
Each graduate receives a certificate ‘Digital Civic Literacy School for IDP Women’ with a QR-code for verification – a document that can actually be added to a resume or grant application.
Who teaches
One of the advantages of the school is a strong team of practitioners, not ‘general coaches’. Among the lecturers of the first cohort:
Daryna Trebukh – the founder of ‘Ukrainian Valkyrie’, opening and end-to-end support of the program;
Olena Churanova – fact-checking and inspection of sources;
Yulia Kalynovska – communications, ex-hospital of the Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications (countering hostile narratives);
Marina Kitina – storytelling and communication with the media;
Victoria Golovko – visual content and social networks;
Yulia Tkachenko and Roman Leonovych – electronic appeals and work with local authorities;
Vitaliy Syzov – Special Corps of Ukrainian Foreign Broadcasting in Brussels (International IDP advocacy);
Lyubov Rakovytsia is the head of the DII-Ukraine NGO (project thinking and fundraising).
First stage: what has already been done
The first cohort went through a full training cycle: from the first digital security lesson to the final hackathon, where the participants presented their own ideas. It was not a ‘course for a tick’, but a living process in which women regained their confidence step by step.
What happened in the first stage:
- A full program of 6 modules has been launched and developed – from passwords and 2fa to writing your own grant application.
- The training infrastructure has been built, which stays with the participants forever: Notion-hub with records of all classes and materials and the Telegram community of support.
- Each participant has created a series of practical artifacts – real actions, not abstract knowledge: configured account protection, submitted electronic request to the state body, disassembled fake, own public posts, advocacy plan and Draft of the microgrant project.
- The final hackathon and certification were carried out – the graduates received registered certificates with verification.
Targets by which we measure changes
‘Ukrainian Valkyrie’ builds programs with measurable results – this is a principled position of the organization. Seven key performance indicators (KPIs) have been identified for “Learn Influence”, which are targeted within both cohorts:
| Indicator | The purpose of the project |
|---|---|
| Involved participants (IDP women) | ≥ 40 |
| completed ≥ 80% of modules | ≥ 70% |
| Learning satisfaction (CSAT) | ≥ 4.3/5 |
| created at least 1 artifact per module | ≥ 80% |
| maintaining the Alumni community in 30 days | ≥ 60% |
In total, up to 50 IDP women in two cohorts will take place during the project. But the main result is not in numbers, but in what is behind them: The woman, who yesterday was afraid to press ‘not there’, today she is helping the neighbor to apply for a subsidy and calmly recognizes the fake in the tape.
Voices of participants
‘I postponed the payment for six months because I didn’t understand where to start, I was afraid to make a mistake. In class, we went into ‘Action’, and I finally applied myself. It sounds small but it was like exhaling for me after a long breath hold – Oksana, 41 years old, immigrant from Mariupol.
‘The most valuable is the disinformation module. I used to send everything to the family chat in a row and quarreled over it with my family. Now I check the source in 30 seconds and explain to my mother where the manipulation. I stopped being the one that is easy to scare” – Tatiana, 36 years old, moved from Kherson region.
‘I thought’ advocacy ‘is something for politicians. And it turned out that it was about me: I wrote an appeal to the local council about the ramp near the shelter. And I was answered. For the first time in two years, I felt my voice weighing something” – Iryna, 52 years old, IDP from Luhansk region.
“I’m I developed the idea of a small project for the same mother migrants as me. Before, I wouldn’t even dare to talk about it out loud. Now I have a draft of the application and know where to submit it” – Natalia, 34 years old, moved from Donetsk region.
The stories of the participants are published with their consent; The names are given out of respect for every woman’s private choice regarding publicity.
Why It Is Important: Our Theory of Change
Behind every ‘small’ skill there is a big change. The logic of the project is simple: skills → actions → influence → community.
The woman masters the skill (protect the account, submit an e-request, check the fake).
She takes a real action and sees the result – and therefore regains a sense of control.
This experience goes beyond the personal: it helps others, turns to the authorities, tells his story.
This is how the Alumni community of women is formed, who support each other and further transmit the acquired knowledge to their communities.
What’s next
The second cohort is already studying at a compacted pace, taking into account the experience and feedback of the first stage.
Alumni-Community is growing: first cohort graduates remain on thecommunications, mentor brand new ones and submit their own microgrant applications.
We are looking for partners and donors to scale the school to new regions and new cohorts, because the demand among IDP women far exceeds our current opportunities.
If you are a donor, affiliate organization or expert who wants to join as a lecturer, write to us. Together, we can give even more women what the war is trying to take away: voice, security and the feeling that the future depends on them again.
With the support of
The project ‘Learn Influence’ is implemented by the NGO ‘Ukrainian Valkyrie’ with the grant support of Metamorphosis Foundation (Northern Macedonia) within the program Digital Spark Call 2026 (Strategic Growth Grants, Regional Support Mechanism EECA). Implementation period: April-October 2026.
Thank you to every woman who chose to learn, act and influence. You are the change we work for.