Empowering Women Entrepreneurs With Digital & AI Skills

When Zoia Cherevychna, a mother of two in Kyiv, Ukraine, founded a children’s game brand in 2019, she had no idea how much her family would rely on her business a few years later when they became displaced due to war.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, her family — including her husband, their older daughter, 9, and their younger daughter, 3 — lost their apartment amid shelling. But with Zoia’s business, Zoia for Kids, and a little help from a digital skills training aimed at women entrepreneurs like her, the family remained resilient.

Zoia found a course supported by Eurasia Foundation that helped improve her digital skills and hone her marketing strategy. “The program provided me with practical tools and knowledge: I created the brand DNA, a brand book, and formulated a business strategy. I also learned how to build sales funnels and design quality content,” she said.

Page views on her business’s Instagram page rose from 2,000 to 30,000. And by adjusting her game prices, she increased sales by 30%. To date, she has sold her games in more than 20 countries, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United States, and Canada.

Zoia was one of nearly 800 women who participated in training courses on digital tools and AI solutions over two months to enhance their businesses and boost their professional skills. Participants included veterans and women from vulnerable groups, such as internally displaced persons, single mothers and mothers of many children, women with disabilities, and women from the families of fallen Defenders of Ukraine.

They learned how to develop marketing strategies using AI, build a personal brand, and establish effective communication with target audiences online. They also focused on creating high-quality visual content to increase business recognition and using online advertising tools to better understand their target audiences.

The training program was made possible by the Digitalisation for Growth, Integrity and Transparency Project (UK DIGIT), implemented by Eurasia Foundation and funded by UK International Development.

Zoia says she was inspired by her oldest child to create Zoia for Kids, which she did “with love and a deep understanding of child development.”

She carefully studied which games were the most beneficial, which skills they helped children develop, and how to choose board games for different age groups. This led her to create original games of her own, something unique that had not yet existed in Ukraine.

“Our mission is to transform learning into joyful play that unlocks children’s potential and lays a solid foundation for their future,” she said.

For Zoia, learning how to use AI-powered tools has helped her communicate with clients, adapt her messaging to her target audience, and better understand her customers, which in turn helped her refine her product offering.

Zoia concluded: “My life has been divided into ‘before’ and ‘after’ – a whole universe of opportunities has opened up.”

For more stories from Eurasia Foundation’s 2025 Annual Report: Rooted in Resilience, click here.