Polina Vyzhak

Polina Vyzhak (she/her) is a Ukrainian feminist and youth activist. Her work is dedicated to the development of fair modern philanthropy through participatory grantmaking. Her goal is to shift power in philanthropy from an up-down to a horizontal approach, including diverse voices in the decision-making and shifting power to young, feminist, queer people, and others, who were ever underpowered before.

In Ukraine, Polina worked on HIV-awareness, promoting sexual education, conducting training sessions for students in different establishments; as well as contributing to several projects that bring awareness to gender-based violence and discrimination of adolescents in health institutions, especially in sexual and reproductive health.

At Global Fund for Women, Polina started off her path as a member of the Adolescent Girls Advisory Council (2020-2023), contributing to the participatory grantmaking process, and funding girl-led grassroots groups worldwide. Since 2021, Polina has been a member of the Artist Changemaker Council, to amplify feminist and queer artists, who are fighting for justice.

At Tara’s Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Polina studied Transboundary Environmental Cooperation for her BA. Due to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, she had to move to Berlin, Germany, where she is now based. At Free University of Berlin, she pursued her Bachelor’s in exchange semesters, studying Political Science at the Otto-Suhr Institute.