Olesya Yaskevich: "All children are children. I do not see a set of diagnoses in a child ..."
Her first and only son was born in a difficult birth, with a serious brain injury, and it is difficult to say how much the doctors were to blame… However, Olesya Yaskevich is not looking for the culprits. What’s the point of regretting something that can’t be changed?
From the very first minute she realized that her beloved Matthew could not see, she decided that she would do everything possible to ensure that her boy could live fully. And although the diseases struck again and again, the son was also diagnosed with epilepsy, he barely learned to speak, Olesya did not back down from his goal. She raises her son as if he were an ordinary boy, and strives to teach other parents to create a happy childhood for their children.
Olesya founded the public organization " See with the Heart " .I thought about it from scratch and implemented the project of a summer day inclusive camp. She conceived a "Creative Workshop" for teenagers with disabilities. It brings to the surface a deep problem of our society: showing off pity for children with disabilities, we actually try to leave them in the shadows, because until we see such children on playgrounds, in schools, parks and cafes, our conscience does not hurt…
About history Matthew and what to change in life to light the lights of happiness in the eyes of children, Ufonda journalist Nina Filatova talks to Olesya Yaskevich.
SEE WITH YOUR HEART.
- Olesya, I’m looking at a photo of your son, he looks like an ordinary boy! I can’t even believe that he has any problems. Tell us a little about Matthew.
- I generally preach the principle: all children are children. Regardless of the diagnosis, features, regardless of whether he can do something or not, walks or does not walk, sees or does not see. I do not see a set of diagnoses in the child. I’m lucky - my son, however, is nice and until you talk to him, it seems that he is just a narcissistic young man, because he does not look in the eyes and seems a little arrogant. And then, when you start to communicate with him… In principle, Matthew now has a development level of 1.5-2 years. But this is a person who very subtly feels everything that is happening around, absorbs everything. This is a litmus test by which I can judge the people I communicate with. If Matthew does not like the man, he will not be with him, he is probably uncomfortable and he will try to do everything to leave.
"Do you think Matthew is an intuition?"
- Yes, he is a very strong intuition. He began to speak consciously very recently, and one day he said to me, "I feel you," that is, "I feel you," and that’s such a profound phrase! I had goosebumps running down my body. I can’t understand how he chooses people. I can’t look into his soul and understand how he feels, but he feels a lot, yes.
"Does Matthew have any talents?"
- Matthew has a perfect ear, because I personally do not sing much (laughs), and when I sing him songs, he does so: "Stop, mom, no, no, you do not want!". And he grasps the music instantly, and I understand that it needs to be developed. At first it was difficult to find a teacher who would not be afraid of what he does not see, does not understand. But I found an amazing specialist who deals with orthography with him. They play drums and a bunch of other instruments, the names of which I don’t even say. And Matthew really likes it. At home we play music, dance, or listen to songs. Suddenly, I discovered that Matthew knows all the modern hits. On weekdays, sometimes we go to the organ hall with him, he somehow feels this music especially… Once we were allowed to go to the organ, to see how it is arranged, for him it was just a revelation.
- Olesya, please tell us how it happened that Matthew was injured at birth. Probably a factor as to why they’re doing so poorly.
- I do not know. It is not always possible to explain what happened, and I do not want to try to put my life on the line to find the culprits. Before I gave birth, I went for an ultrasound, I was told that the fetus is developing well, lying properly, you give birth yourself. But when childbirth began, something went wrong, some wild fuss began. As a result, the child was pulled with forceps and a vacuum. And pulled out. As it turned out, he was big - 3 kg 950 g, 58 cm, such a "hippopotamus" was. And then again something went wrong.
I had no idea what was going on. When she left anesthesia on the second day, a nurse came and brought a piece of paper: "Sign." And I also see everything vaguely, but I still remember that piece of paper: "I, such and such, voluntarily give up my child…". But then I could not understand why I was offered to give up my child. I called the nurse and began to ask, and she said: "You’re so young, he will still die, give birth to another." And then something starts to reach me. The second day after birth. I have not seen a child yet. I ask, "Is he alive?" And the nurse says, "He’s alive, but why do you need him?" I got up and went to the intensive care unit. It is now with one look at the child I can determine the diagnosis, and then? I look: arms, legs in place, moving. Everything, this is my child, is no longer discussed. But they did not raise this issue again. Then we were transferred to the intensive care unit of Okhmatdet for a whole month. And again I was left alone with the problem. At that time there was no Internet, which can be accessed directly from the phone and learn all about the diagnoses. And then I asked no one, I was told: do not worry, it will grow, up to a year they all level off.
I came home and began to make plans: to go to kindergarten here, to early development courses here… When Matthew was three and a half months old, a doctor came and said: I need to get vaccinated. I am basically in favor of vaccinations, if it is a good vaccine, the children examined, I do not support this boom against vaccinations. At that time, the child was fine, temperature, tests, and we gave him his first vaccination. Now I can’t say that it was she who provoked his blindness, but literally a few days later I went into his room and turned on the light. The light was bright, but he didn’t even react. My husband and I decided that we needed to see a doctor immediately. The doctor at the eye microsurgery center looked at the child, and then wrote something for a long time, it turned out that Matthew - optic nerve atrophy - may or may not see. I came home and started reading, and finally realized for herself that it was blindness due to a birth injury to the brain. And at that moment my life was divided into "before" and "after": I had already made plans for the next five years, and it turned out that Matthew was blind. I realized that these plans did not come true.
I can’t say that I had a period of hysteria, tearing my hair and shouting "why am I doing this?", I didn’t have it. In general, I deal with stress in a different way: I need to do something immediately, and I decided: if he does not see, then there must be centers, schools, kindergartens, where I will come, and I will be told how to develop it. I started looking for them, and then I was shocked: 11 years ago, when I called all of Kyiv, I found nothing. I called UTOS, I ask: I have a blind boy. Maybe you will recommend some toys, courses, how to deal with it? And the woman from UTOS asked: - How old are you? "Four months?" - It will be 18 years, then come!
And then Matthew had epileptic seizures, they followed one after another: the child could not breathe for a while, gray, black. We were prescribed some drugs, from which my son’s coma followed one after another! The doctors did not know what to do, he just went into a coma. And I realized that instead of a child who at three and a half years old could walk, smile, eat, sit, in his arms - just a rag, he could not even swallow.
My close friend simply pushed me to the doctor where she treated her daughter, with his help we managed to reduce the number of attacks to one a week, a month, and then there was a remission for several years. When we got the right treatment, Matthew finally called me "mom." He had repeated mum-mum-mum before, but it was unconscious. I don’t know if he understands the meaning of the word "mom" now, but he knows that if I am called, I will respond. I’ll come, hug, kiss. And he had a speech, and he began to understand, drink, eat, go. It’s just that I became a prodigy!
- Olesya, you remember the story of your marriage to Matthew’s father without resentment or regret. And yet you broke up with your husband, having a sick child in your arms…
"I must have been wrong about something, he was wrong about something." I believe that there is no right or wrong side in a relationship between two people. And it was part of my fault that he left. Now we communicate without complaints and resentments, and I know that if I need something very urgently, he will sincerely help. And I will be able to do everything in my power for him. Now I have a new, warm and cozy family, my husband Andrei and I have been together for six years.
- Olesya, you became a mother at the age of twenty-five. And before, before marriage, you had time to try yourself in the profession? Who are you by education?
- I always knew that I would be a primary school teacher. I came to school fifteen years ago with burning eyes: I will now turn the whole world upside down here! But I was quickly besieged there. They said: “Well, what is it like to hold a reading lesson on the street?It is necessary according to regulations. No, you are reprimanded! ” And so once, two, three… It was very difficult for me, I did not understand these prohibitions, I wanted to prove that every child is a person and it is not necessary to make a cog in it. I learned to read - write one class and left school. And when Matthew was born, I realized that I lacked specific skills and graduated from our Drahomanov Institute with a degree in "typhlopedagogy", that is, working with blind children. That was seven years ago. I went to study motivated, I really needed it.
- In 2014, you registered the public organization " See with the heart ". Do you hope to change the system of raising blind children together?
"Of course!" Even before 2014, we worked informally for three years, I gathered specialists, volunteers, parents with children. I wanted to show that a family with a child with a disability is not the end of the world, it is not a drama. Therefore, we organized master classes, exhibitions, concerts all the time, and when we registered, we began to systematically implement long-term projects.
- How was the idea of a summer inclusive camp born?
- Last year it was a pilot project. I conceived it in the spring, and immediately shared my idea with like-minded girls, and they said: crazy idea, and I immediately decided: "it is necessary to do" (laughs). I wrote about the idea on Facebook, and my parents responded. But I understood that there was no funding and there was nowhere to get it in a short time. We, together with my parents, partly with benefactors, found money to rent a room, I found a house in the Rusanov Gardens. Initially, I wanted it to be a house, for children to plant flowers there, be soiled with earth, fry and eat pancakes, I wanted to create just such a home party. The house needed to be one-story, as there were many wheelchair users among the children. So the house was found, but just a week before the start, when we had already recruited groups, a realtor called me and said that the hostess will not sign a contract with me, she does not even want to meet with me, because she learned that there will be such children in the camp. But I expected that our camp would be able to accommodate about forty people, because the house was quite spacious. But then, there was still a way out: a private house in Nivki. Four days before the launch, we put it in order and started on time.
But the most difficult thing was not money, but the human factor. When the volunteers said, "We will come, we will come," and in the morning I realized that I had twenty-two children, eleven of whom did not go at all, and I was alone! ... There were really very few adults. People came for an hour, watched and left, and then did not even answer the calls. I bet on Drahomanov’s students, but not a single person came from there! And then I started writing on Facebook that there was a catastrophic shortage of people, and the volunteers went, some for an hour, some for two. But at the end of the experiment, we realized that the camp should be a permanent project, because initially we just wanted to make a cool fun month for children. But I saw the amazing results of the camp. For example, someone began to eat on their own, it turns out he could do it all his life, and his mother fed him!
I realized that I needed to write a program for the next camp, and this spring we began to select specialists to work in the camp on the Internet. There were two hundred applications for participation. Forty people came to the first meeting, fourteen to the second, and eleven in the end. Those who stayed worked all month. These were cool girls, this is our heart. Interestingly, there were only two specialists among them: one - a psychologist, the other - a speech pathologist, the rest - bloggers, journalists, people who just wanted to do it. The camp was designed for fifty children. As a result, we had almost eighty children in the camp! But I could not refuse many, because I understood: I will not take this child, he will stay at home for a whole year. We had children who had never been to such a party in their 12-14 years. There were children, who have never been anywhere without a mother. There were children who did not even know that in principle there are other children! They lived only among adults and were not visited by their peers.
The first week was very difficult. We had children who like to shout, normotypical children, children with autism, who are annoyed by everything. We had a girl whose eyes only moved, her body completely motionless! There were fifteen-year-old boys who played with you like two-year-olds. We had Tolik, who beat the plates, cut my bangs, cut my bangs, and his mother could not go home for the first days, the camp was in the Pechersk school, and she wandered around until the first week until the evening, she thought I would call and say : take the child. For many parents, this was also a new experience: leaving the child unattended.
We had an extensive program: police guys came to us to teach children the rules of the road. But what rules there! The children saw their car, their uniform, began to dress up as police officers, it was insanely interesting for everyone! Athletes came to us, they brought with them a lot of equipment: balls, dumbbells; guys came with drum therapy, dog therapy. Ballerinas and girls who are engaged in oriental dances came. Every day we had a big block of self-service classes, because there were children who did not know where the soup comes from, how vegetables get into it, could not go to the store. So we started shopping with them. For example, children made dumplings and had to buy food for them - choose flour, give the goods at the checkout, pay, pick up the delivery. And at graduation we had a real astronaut in a spacesuit! It was enchanting! There was so much enthusiasm not only for children, but also for adults! That’s how we got a month!
Space camp - 2017
- Do you have ideas for long-term or permanent projects?
"Yes, I’m watching Matthew grow fast." He is already eleven, and what will happen when he is 15? I think about how he will be able to realize himself, because in Ukraine there is nothing for children with disabilities. There are no workshops in Kyiv where young people with disabilities could work. For example, I visit Poland to see how young people work. We were in the tiny town of Radom, so they have six workshops for people with disabilities! Now we are doing a project "Creative Workshop" on the basis of one territorial center. The workshop makes candles and soap, we sold its products at a charity bazaar, now we want to open a bakery there. And now we want to create such a space there like a camp with an educational and rehabilitation program on a permanent basis. And it will be a center for all kinds of children, not just those with disabilities. Recently, I tried to find out how many children with complex diseases there are in Kyiv, and I realized that we don’t even have statistics! These children are out of the system in general, and this situation needs to change.
- Olesya, tell me honestly, where do you get the strength to raise such a virgin problem?
- It seems to me that when you start doing such projects, you are very inspired, and I look at Matthew, at the families I work with, and I understand: there is no going back. And such cool people gather around me. I look back: three years ago I didn’t have my team, and now there are so many people around! And these are not the people who came to my camp to take pictures for Instagram and leave. These are sincere, diligent people who call and go with their proposals, and I understand that with such people you can roll the mountains! My strength is in them!
Photo by Anna Zagorskaya
From the very first minute she realized that her beloved Matthew could not see, she decided that she would do everything possible to ensure that her boy could live fully. And although the diseases struck again and again, the son was also diagnosed with epilepsy, he barely learned to speak, Olesya did not back down from his goal. She raises her son as if he were an ordinary boy, and strives to teach other parents to create a happy childhood for their children.
Olesya founded the public organization " See with the Heart " .I thought about it from scratch and implemented the project of a summer day inclusive camp. She conceived a "Creative Workshop" for teenagers with disabilities. It brings to the surface a deep problem of our society: showing off pity for children with disabilities, we actually try to leave them in the shadows, because until we see such children on playgrounds, in schools, parks and cafes, our conscience does not hurt…
About history Matthew and what to change in life to light the lights of happiness in the eyes of children, Ufonda journalist Nina Filatova talks to Olesya Yaskevich.
SEE WITH YOUR HEART.
- Olesya, I’m looking at a photo of your son, he looks like an ordinary boy! I can’t even believe that he has any problems. Tell us a little about Matthew.
- I generally preach the principle: all children are children. Regardless of the diagnosis, features, regardless of whether he can do something or not, walks or does not walk, sees or does not see. I do not see a set of diagnoses in the child. I’m lucky - my son, however, is nice and until you talk to him, it seems that he is just a narcissistic young man, because he does not look in the eyes and seems a little arrogant. And then, when you start to communicate with him… In principle, Matthew now has a development level of 1.5-2 years. But this is a person who very subtly feels everything that is happening around, absorbs everything. This is a litmus test by which I can judge the people I communicate with. If Matthew does not like the man, he will not be with him, he is probably uncomfortable and he will try to do everything to leave.
"Do you think Matthew is an intuition?"
- Yes, he is a very strong intuition. He began to speak consciously very recently, and one day he said to me, "I feel you," that is, "I feel you," and that’s such a profound phrase! I had goosebumps running down my body. I can’t understand how he chooses people. I can’t look into his soul and understand how he feels, but he feels a lot, yes.
"Does Matthew have any talents?"
- Matthew has a perfect ear, because I personally do not sing much (laughs), and when I sing him songs, he does so: "Stop, mom, no, no, you do not want!". And he grasps the music instantly, and I understand that it needs to be developed. At first it was difficult to find a teacher who would not be afraid of what he does not see, does not understand. But I found an amazing specialist who deals with orthography with him. They play drums and a bunch of other instruments, the names of which I don’t even say. And Matthew really likes it. At home we play music, dance, or listen to songs. Suddenly, I discovered that Matthew knows all the modern hits. On weekdays, sometimes we go to the organ hall with him, he somehow feels this music especially… Once we were allowed to go to the organ, to see how it is arranged, for him it was just a revelation.
- Olesya, please tell us how it happened that Matthew was injured at birth. Probably a factor as to why they’re doing so poorly.
- I do not know. It is not always possible to explain what happened, and I do not want to try to put my life on the line to find the culprits. Before I gave birth, I went for an ultrasound, I was told that the fetus is developing well, lying properly, you give birth yourself. But when childbirth began, something went wrong, some wild fuss began. As a result, the child was pulled with forceps and a vacuum. And pulled out. As it turned out, he was big - 3 kg 950 g, 58 cm, such a "hippopotamus" was. And then again something went wrong.
I had no idea what was going on. When she left anesthesia on the second day, a nurse came and brought a piece of paper: "Sign." And I also see everything vaguely, but I still remember that piece of paper: "I, such and such, voluntarily give up my child…". But then I could not understand why I was offered to give up my child. I called the nurse and began to ask, and she said: "You’re so young, he will still die, give birth to another." And then something starts to reach me. The second day after birth. I have not seen a child yet. I ask, "Is he alive?" And the nurse says, "He’s alive, but why do you need him?" I got up and went to the intensive care unit. It is now with one look at the child I can determine the diagnosis, and then? I look: arms, legs in place, moving. Everything, this is my child, is no longer discussed. But they did not raise this issue again. Then we were transferred to the intensive care unit of Okhmatdet for a whole month. And again I was left alone with the problem. At that time there was no Internet, which can be accessed directly from the phone and learn all about the diagnoses. And then I asked no one, I was told: do not worry, it will grow, up to a year they all level off.
I came home and began to make plans: to go to kindergarten here, to early development courses here… When Matthew was three and a half months old, a doctor came and said: I need to get vaccinated. I am basically in favor of vaccinations, if it is a good vaccine, the children examined, I do not support this boom against vaccinations. At that time, the child was fine, temperature, tests, and we gave him his first vaccination. Now I can’t say that it was she who provoked his blindness, but literally a few days later I went into his room and turned on the light. The light was bright, but he didn’t even react. My husband and I decided that we needed to see a doctor immediately. The doctor at the eye microsurgery center looked at the child, and then wrote something for a long time, it turned out that Matthew - optic nerve atrophy - may or may not see. I came home and started reading, and finally realized for herself that it was blindness due to a birth injury to the brain. And at that moment my life was divided into "before" and "after": I had already made plans for the next five years, and it turned out that Matthew was blind. I realized that these plans did not come true.
I can’t say that I had a period of hysteria, tearing my hair and shouting "why am I doing this?", I didn’t have it. In general, I deal with stress in a different way: I need to do something immediately, and I decided: if he does not see, then there must be centers, schools, kindergartens, where I will come, and I will be told how to develop it. I started looking for them, and then I was shocked: 11 years ago, when I called all of Kyiv, I found nothing. I called UTOS, I ask: I have a blind boy. Maybe you will recommend some toys, courses, how to deal with it? And the woman from UTOS asked: - How old are you? "Four months?" - It will be 18 years, then come!
And then Matthew had epileptic seizures, they followed one after another: the child could not breathe for a while, gray, black. We were prescribed some drugs, from which my son’s coma followed one after another! The doctors did not know what to do, he just went into a coma. And I realized that instead of a child who at three and a half years old could walk, smile, eat, sit, in his arms - just a rag, he could not even swallow.
My close friend simply pushed me to the doctor where she treated her daughter, with his help we managed to reduce the number of attacks to one a week, a month, and then there was a remission for several years. When we got the right treatment, Matthew finally called me "mom." He had repeated mum-mum-mum before, but it was unconscious. I don’t know if he understands the meaning of the word "mom" now, but he knows that if I am called, I will respond. I’ll come, hug, kiss. And he had a speech, and he began to understand, drink, eat, go. It’s just that I became a prodigy!
- Olesya, you remember the story of your marriage to Matthew’s father without resentment or regret. And yet you broke up with your husband, having a sick child in your arms…
"I must have been wrong about something, he was wrong about something." I believe that there is no right or wrong side in a relationship between two people. And it was part of my fault that he left. Now we communicate without complaints and resentments, and I know that if I need something very urgently, he will sincerely help. And I will be able to do everything in my power for him. Now I have a new, warm and cozy family, my husband Andrei and I have been together for six years.
- Olesya, you became a mother at the age of twenty-five. And before, before marriage, you had time to try yourself in the profession? Who are you by education?
- I always knew that I would be a primary school teacher. I came to school fifteen years ago with burning eyes: I will now turn the whole world upside down here! But I was quickly besieged there. They said: “Well, what is it like to hold a reading lesson on the street?It is necessary according to regulations. No, you are reprimanded! ” And so once, two, three… It was very difficult for me, I did not understand these prohibitions, I wanted to prove that every child is a person and it is not necessary to make a cog in it. I learned to read - write one class and left school. And when Matthew was born, I realized that I lacked specific skills and graduated from our Drahomanov Institute with a degree in "typhlopedagogy", that is, working with blind children. That was seven years ago. I went to study motivated, I really needed it.
- In 2014, you registered the public organization " See with the heart ". Do you hope to change the system of raising blind children together?
"Of course!" Even before 2014, we worked informally for three years, I gathered specialists, volunteers, parents with children. I wanted to show that a family with a child with a disability is not the end of the world, it is not a drama. Therefore, we organized master classes, exhibitions, concerts all the time, and when we registered, we began to systematically implement long-term projects.
- How was the idea of a summer inclusive camp born?
- Last year it was a pilot project. I conceived it in the spring, and immediately shared my idea with like-minded girls, and they said: crazy idea, and I immediately decided: "it is necessary to do" (laughs). I wrote about the idea on Facebook, and my parents responded. But I understood that there was no funding and there was nowhere to get it in a short time. We, together with my parents, partly with benefactors, found money to rent a room, I found a house in the Rusanov Gardens. Initially, I wanted it to be a house, for children to plant flowers there, be soiled with earth, fry and eat pancakes, I wanted to create just such a home party. The house needed to be one-story, as there were many wheelchair users among the children. So the house was found, but just a week before the start, when we had already recruited groups, a realtor called me and said that the hostess will not sign a contract with me, she does not even want to meet with me, because she learned that there will be such children in the camp. But I expected that our camp would be able to accommodate about forty people, because the house was quite spacious. But then, there was still a way out: a private house in Nivki. Four days before the launch, we put it in order and started on time.
But the most difficult thing was not money, but the human factor. When the volunteers said, "We will come, we will come," and in the morning I realized that I had twenty-two children, eleven of whom did not go at all, and I was alone! ... There were really very few adults. People came for an hour, watched and left, and then did not even answer the calls. I bet on Drahomanov’s students, but not a single person came from there! And then I started writing on Facebook that there was a catastrophic shortage of people, and the volunteers went, some for an hour, some for two. But at the end of the experiment, we realized that the camp should be a permanent project, because initially we just wanted to make a cool fun month for children. But I saw the amazing results of the camp. For example, someone began to eat on their own, it turns out he could do it all his life, and his mother fed him!
I realized that I needed to write a program for the next camp, and this spring we began to select specialists to work in the camp on the Internet. There were two hundred applications for participation. Forty people came to the first meeting, fourteen to the second, and eleven in the end. Those who stayed worked all month. These were cool girls, this is our heart. Interestingly, there were only two specialists among them: one - a psychologist, the other - a speech pathologist, the rest - bloggers, journalists, people who just wanted to do it. The camp was designed for fifty children. As a result, we had almost eighty children in the camp! But I could not refuse many, because I understood: I will not take this child, he will stay at home for a whole year. We had children who had never been to such a party in their 12-14 years. There were children, who have never been anywhere without a mother. There were children who did not even know that in principle there are other children! They lived only among adults and were not visited by their peers.
The first week was very difficult. We had children who like to shout, normotypical children, children with autism, who are annoyed by everything. We had a girl whose eyes only moved, her body completely motionless! There were fifteen-year-old boys who played with you like two-year-olds. We had Tolik, who beat the plates, cut my bangs, cut my bangs, and his mother could not go home for the first days, the camp was in the Pechersk school, and she wandered around until the first week until the evening, she thought I would call and say : take the child. For many parents, this was also a new experience: leaving the child unattended.
We had an extensive program: police guys came to us to teach children the rules of the road. But what rules there! The children saw their car, their uniform, began to dress up as police officers, it was insanely interesting for everyone! Athletes came to us, they brought with them a lot of equipment: balls, dumbbells; guys came with drum therapy, dog therapy. Ballerinas and girls who are engaged in oriental dances came. Every day we had a big block of self-service classes, because there were children who did not know where the soup comes from, how vegetables get into it, could not go to the store. So we started shopping with them. For example, children made dumplings and had to buy food for them - choose flour, give the goods at the checkout, pay, pick up the delivery. And at graduation we had a real astronaut in a spacesuit! It was enchanting! There was so much enthusiasm not only for children, but also for adults! That’s how we got a month!
Space camp - 2017
- Do you have ideas for long-term or permanent projects?
"Yes, I’m watching Matthew grow fast." He is already eleven, and what will happen when he is 15? I think about how he will be able to realize himself, because in Ukraine there is nothing for children with disabilities. There are no workshops in Kyiv where young people with disabilities could work. For example, I visit Poland to see how young people work. We were in the tiny town of Radom, so they have six workshops for people with disabilities! Now we are doing a project "Creative Workshop" on the basis of one territorial center. The workshop makes candles and soap, we sold its products at a charity bazaar, now we want to open a bakery there. And now we want to create such a space there like a camp with an educational and rehabilitation program on a permanent basis. And it will be a center for all kinds of children, not just those with disabilities. Recently, I tried to find out how many children with complex diseases there are in Kyiv, and I realized that we don’t even have statistics! These children are out of the system in general, and this situation needs to change.
- Olesya, tell me honestly, where do you get the strength to raise such a virgin problem?
- It seems to me that when you start doing such projects, you are very inspired, and I look at Matthew, at the families I work with, and I understand: there is no going back. And such cool people gather around me. I look back: three years ago I didn’t have my team, and now there are so many people around! And these are not the people who came to my camp to take pictures for Instagram and leave. These are sincere, diligent people who call and go with their proposals, and I understand that with such people you can roll the mountains! My strength is in them!
Photo by Anna Zagorskaya