Due to the Great War, many wonderful Ukrainian women have come to Stuttgart. Through numerous encounters and exchanges between representatives of the diaspora and the newly arrived women, the idea of founding a women's network was born.
The first official meeting took place in mid-December 2023 at Café Merlin, organised by Olena Burmenko (Kyiv) and Afina Albrecht (Stuttgart). The focus was on discussions about life in Germany, comparing social norms and traditions and sharing personal experiences. The meeting provided a space to get to know each other, present ideas and projects and collect topics that are particularly relevant for refugee women.
Numerous meetings followed over the course of 2024, during which we practised job interviews, analysed application processes, drew up CVs and worked on important technical terms. Kateryna Ilchenko organised training sessions on self-presentation and LinkedIn. The activities were supplemented by language cafés with the moderator Dorothee Frei-Stahl, the networker and consultant Erik Hägele and the Director of the Concordia Social Projects Foundation, Galina Markschläger. Olga Potsiluiko shared her knowledge of application processes, and Maryna Seifert played a key role as co-organiser, without whose commitment the network would not be possible in this form. Special thanks go to Porsche AG for the financial support that made it possible to organise these activities.
Another important part of our work was our collaboration with the Stuttgart Education Partnership department to explain the German education system. We also visited the volunteer agency. Dedicated women from the community organised their own sessions on topics such as household management, payroll accounting, taxes and issues relevant to everyday life.
In 2024, two large motivational meetings took place in the theatre. Women who are already working or training reported on their personal journeys, challenges and successes and motivated other participants. Special thanks go to Anna Bakinovska for providing the location and co-organising these events.
At the same time, in 2024, 2025 and now also in 2026, the „From Dream to Action“ motivational courses were regularly organised by Olena Burmenko at the StadtPalais in Stuttgart. In these courses, she combines personal experience with structured knowledge on goal-setting, motivation and actively shaping one's life in Germany so that women can go their own way with strength, positivity and confidence. Due to the high demand, these courses will be continued in the future.
Strengthened since the end of 2024 Larysa Marchenko She is a member of the organisation team and is responsible for coordinating and developing the content of the network meetings. Her focus is on providing professional support when starting a career: she designs job search formats, prepares participants specifically for job interviews and supports them in analysing job advertisements and optimising application documents. A milestone in her work is the creation of a practical guide for successful job searches in Germany. She is also responsible for the network's professional presence on LinkedIn.
With a fresh branding, the new name Women's Union BW UA and an increased presence on Instagram and LinkedIn we have made a successful start to the year 2025. Our aim is to intensify dialogue and support even more women in their integration. The visual design and social media marketing are significantly supported by Nataliia Isaeva accompanied.
In 2025, we can already look back on over 30 successfully organised events. These include monthly theme evenings in the Café Merlin, motivational events in the StadtPalais as well as practice-oriented workshops on topics such as strategic self-presentation and application processes, optimising LinkedIn profiles, professional orientation and the German education system, employment law basics, payroll accounting and taxes. Since 2025, we have also enjoyed the active support of Krystyna Pavliichuk, who completes our organisation team.
In July 2025, another large motivational meeting took place at StadtPalais, which reached a new level in terms of the number of participants and interest. Representatives of the Ukrainian community who are already working in Stuttgart shared their personal integration journeys and spoke openly about motivation, challenges and success strategies. In addition Caren Moirongo from the Women's Foundation Stuttgart a keynote speech on empowerment and mentoring. The positive response and the visible enthusiasm of the participants confirmed the great importance of such formats.
We will continue our work in 2026 and will continue to hold our meetings regularly - both as monthly meetings at Café Merlin and in other formats and at different locations. We publish all event announcements on our Telegram channel and on our social media pages.
Women's Union BW UA is planning continuous further development, new formats and collaborations to support women in the long term with integration, motivation and professional orientation in Germany.
