Ms. Halyna at her speech therapy office

Receiving needed support has often been a challenge for children with psychological and physical illnesses in rural Ukraine due to a lack of government financing. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has only made things worse.

Ms. Halyna has several educational degrees and has worked in a rural school in Lviv Oblast providing assistance to children with certain psychophysical developmental disabilities. This, however, requires more of an individualized approach with a special space and modern tools to make the treatment more efficient.

Halyna’s dream was to open her own speech therapy office to help kids, but she lacked the access to financing.

Thanks to the $500,000 Resilience Initiative launched by USAID and Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions, and a liquidity support program through credit unions for micro-, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in rural Ukraine, Halyna managed to secure an affordable loan to open the doors of her speech therapy office.

She is now taking care of more than 20 children, whose parents bring them in for therapy from all the surrounding villages.

“People in rural areas really need support to develop small entrepreneurial ventures,” said Halyna. “It would bring some ’fresh air’ to these places.”

There is a high demand for Halyna’s services, so she is drawing up new plans to launch a more complex, inclusive education for children with special needs, such as autism disorders.

To date, over 100 loans have been disbursed for a total of more than US $500,000 under the Resilience Initiative.