It’s March – Women’s History Month, and the month in which we celebrate International Women’s Day. The WIWIP team feels very strongly that it is important to highlight and showcase the many brilliant women working in the fields of war studies, defence, security, international relations, and international politics. This year, starting in March and as part of our efforts to mark IWD, we will be sharing interviews with some fantastic women we have the privilege of working with and learning from.
Today it’s our pleasure to introduce you to Yuliia Chykolba. Yuliia is a KCL MA Student, studying Conflict Security and Development at the Department of War Studies. She is also a Chevening Scholar. Yuliia talked with us about her work with the Danish Demining Group and her involvement in the establishment of the first female demining team in Afghanistan.
Can you tell us a bit about your career journey?
After graduating with Masters degrees in Law, Finance and Human Resource Management, I was working as a coach and at a local youth and sport-focused NGO, combining it with representing Ukraine internationally as a taekwondo athlete.
But as for millions of Ukrainians in 2014, my life changed irrevocably with the annexation of Crimea and the conflict outbreak in eastern Ukraine. Actively supporting anti-government protests in my hometown Dnipro, I was deeply affected by the killings of the demonstrators in the capital. But a real critical juncture was the Battle of Ilovaisk in August 2014 where the Russian Army inflicted significant losses on the Ukrainian Armed Forces. My hometown was one of the closest big cities to the frontline and our hospitals were overwhelmed with the massive flow of injured soldiers and civilians from the conflict zone.
I joined an aid coordination centre in one of the hospitals as a volunteer and co-founded a charity organization to supply medical and other equipment to eastern Ukraine. It was a very transformational period as I felt that my ‘old life’ did not make any sense anymore when so many people were dying and suffering owing to an unexpected war. Through the volunteer work, I was not only trying to support those in need, but also started to learn about the everyday realities of armed conflict.
My first visit to the war zone was in 2015 when I joined a group of volunteers, and conducted the dialogue training, sport and art activities with kids living in the frontline villages of eastern Ukraine. This is where my interest was established and less than a year after I resigned from my job as a coach, joined Danish Demining Group (DDG) and moved to eastern Ukraine to work as a Mine Risk Education trainer raising awareness about the explosive ordnance and promoting safe behaviour among the local people in conflict-affected areas. My first international assignment was in Afghanistan, where I managed an Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) programme. Our teams were working in six provinces and border crossing points in Afghanistan, educating returnees, IDPs and local communities about the risks posed by explosive hazards.
During that time I was also involved in the set-up of the first female demining team in Afghanistan. It was particularly inspiring to see how the courage and dedication of these hard-working ladies were changing the perception of the abilities of women and their place in the particularly challenging Afghan context.
My next assignment was with United Nations Mine Action Service in Iraq. Based in Baghdad, I coordinated the UNMAS EORE programme activities in three provinces, developing the capacity of local personnel, conducting quality management and liaising with government entities. I worked closely with national authorities to support the advancement of the Iraqi EORE programme, particularly to increase the effectiveness of the activities. In my line of work I was interested in the perceptions of explosive threats, and the attitudes and motivations behind specific behavioural patterns to design the best possible programmes to address that. Last year I was awarded the Chevening Scholarship and commenced my studies at King’s College London. Here I got really interested in counterterrorism and countering violent extremism. With the previous background in conflict countries and social behavioural change communication, I find these areas as particularly interesting to explore.
Do you think that gender discrimination affects your area of work, and if so, how do overcome this?
Humanitarian Mine Action is traditionally a very male-dominated field, but recently we saw a lot of progress with gender-responsive policies at all levels, from international standards to individual projects. At the same time, mine action does not exist in isolation and the context of each individual country varies a lot. At the early stages of my career it was particularly difficult - a young woman talking about explosives was a very unusual thing in Ukraine.
It took a lot of effort to overcome the initial bias that a military man is the only credible source of knowledge about mines. I was constantly learning, educating myself about both the technical side of explosive ordnance and methodologies to deal with difficult participants during training sessions. In the end it was very rewarding when a session that started with a hostile attitude and a number of ‘tricky’ questions, ended with a meaningful discussion about safety protocols and sharing information about contaminated areas. Now humanitarian mine action attracts more and more women, including for demining and EOD positions. But even now in Ukraine female demining team leaders are rare. I believe that with time and growing expertise we will get there.
WIWIP is currently hosting a workshop series to tackle issues like Imposter Syndrome and achieving professional fulfilment. Do you have any specific ways in which you deal with things like self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy?
I took part in one of these events and found it really useful. I don’t think there is a ‘magic pill’ for the imposter syndrome, but there are some things that I do when I feel low. First of all is talking to a reassuring friend or mentor. Imposter syndrome is not about logical conclusions, but about emotions. What helps is to share my fears and frustrations with a person I trust. Another thing I do is to look at my own LinkedIn profile and remind myself of my career accomplishments, despite numerous challenges that I faced along the way. It is important to remind yourself about your past achievements in times of crisis. The final thing for me is just to keep going. Even when feeling really low, there is no harm in trying. I would push myself to apply for a job even if I feel inadequate for it. In the worst-case scenario of being rejected, I am still in the same place I was before, had I not tried.
As I am now looking into opportunities outside mine action, I will be new to the area and the relevance and value of my previous experience is not necessarily be easily seen by the recruiter. Hence, I expect a flow of rejections and consequently a severe episode of the imposter syndrome. But it is always easier to deal with something you are aware of and have some tools to deal with.
What does International Women’s Day mean to you? How do you celebrate it?
It is very funny, when I analyse my own transformation into a feminist. In Ukraine, the tradition of the IWD celebration is very strong. Since Soviet times, it has been a public holiday and pretty much everyone knows March the 8th. But growing up in Ukraine, it was a celebration of ‘girls and women: mothers, wives, daughters’ and a day of the ‘spring and beauty’ when my dad made a breakfast and the boys at school brought us flowers. But with my own personal and professional growth, and having gained knowledge about gender equality and women rights, I started to see what is wrong with the ‘celebration of the beautiful part of the humanity’ concept.
These days for me it is another occasion to celebrate the achievements of impressive strong, smart and leading women, to remind ourselves about the existing inequalities and restate our joint commitment to both men and women for a better, more inclusive and fairer world.