Marta Levchenko

Biography

Marta Levchenko is the founder and head of the Charitable Foundation “City of Goodness” — the largest crisis and rehabilitation centre for mothers and children in Ukraine.

She was born in 1984 in Rohatyn, Ivano-Frankivsk region. She graduated with honours (Master’s degree with distinction) from the Faculty of Arts and Pedagogy, specialising in directing, at Rivne State University of the Humanities. She is an alumna of the “Open World” programme and the “Public Management and Leadership in the Age of Disruption” programme at the National University of Singapore.

Marta’s charitable journey began in 2008 with a volunteer group. Since 2011, she has led the Charitable Foundation “I Am the Future of Ukraine” and served as Executive Director of Brand PR Company. In 2016, the first City of Goodness shelter opened in a rented facility. In 2019, the Foundation inaugurated a purpose-built, fully equipped centre. In 2018, she joined Mother Teresa’s mission in Kolkata, India — an experience that shaped the vision for what City of Goodness would become.

“There is no faster way to provide children with what they need than by ensuring the success of their mothers.”

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Marta and her team began conducting their own specialised medical evacuations of critically ill orphaned children from high-risk areas under shelling and active hostilities. The City of Goodness became a refuge for hundreds of evacuated children and two evacuated orphanages, providing long-term care, stability, and integration.

In 2023, Marta founded the “House of Butterflies” — the largest and only children’s hospice in Ukraine, providing care and palliative support to orphaned and terminally ill children entirely on a charitable basis. This unique facility offers not only medical care, but also rehabilitation, inclusive education, psychological support, and dignity for children with life-limiting conditions. It has become a national model for paediatric palliative development in Ukraine.

Since 2024, Marta is the founder of the annual International Medical Forum on Children’s Palliative Care “Butterflies of Hope” — bringing together medical professionals, managers, and advocates from across Ukraine and internationally to advance standards of paediatric palliative care and drive systemic change for the most vulnerable children.

None of Marta’s projects receive state funding. She has built a global movement of compassion — uniting thousands of people across the world around charity, humanity, and the unwavering belief in the dignity of the most vulnerable.