Holiday gifts include handmade articles made by physically and mentally challenged youth

Friday, 21 December 2012, 17:40

Caritas Ukraine inaugurated this year’s Art Project, which includes some one hundred young individuals who are personally challenged together with known Lviv artists. The goal of their collaboration is to create holiday gifts that will be spread among the community and which will focus on the issue of socializing mentally and physically challenged individuals into our society. Assistants in helping to compose special Christmas gifts, contributing their style and experience were renown artists – Ostap Lozynsky, Olya Kravchenko, Marian Pyrih, Olha Pylnyk, Yevhenia Riabchun, Maryana Kviatkovska. They state that this project is not only socially significant but also offers an alternative to imported gifts.

Within the project Vid Romana do Yordanu [from the Feast Day of Roman until the Feast of Epiphany], the various exhibits, master classes, Christmas bazaars, gallery and coffee house events, a musical concert -- captured the heart of Western Ukraine as well as the capital. Young artist together with challenged youth from Caritas Ukraine presented an icon on glass, a current icon on wood, ceramics, and textiles, paintings on materials, creative thematic gifts and toys. The artists befriended the challenged youth and are happily looking forward to continue working together nest autumn.

Marian Pyrih, an artist and owner of the enterprise, Handcrafts of Pyrih Family, a musician and an activist of the art project, said: “When last year they invited me to participate in master-classes with challenged youth, I was confused. I did not want to be part of a teaching crew – I considered that as somewhat intrusive, which contradicts the freedom of choice of an individual. However, specifically to this invitation, I adopted a somewhat delicate and intimate stance: as if someone was inviting me to be a godparent for their child—one cannot refuse such an invitation.”

“And eventually through participation in the activities which were conducted by other artists, and beginning to conduct my own, I basically changed my whole attitude. As never before, I was struck by the absolute openness of the challenged youth. My mind could not figure out what relates these incredibly bright individuals with the term ‘limited – not fully capable!’ Next to them I feel myself somewhat limited. They so directly and wholeheartedly dedicate themselves to a task, permit others to join their personal domain, not maligned by stereotypes and lies. Their love of goodness, of colors and creative impulse, forces you without any reservations to feel totally happy and joyful.”

“I am very grateful to fate that has led me to such unusual people. Till the end of my days I will always admire and deeply respect people who have special needs as well as people who work with them.”

In our country, every year the number of people who are challenged increases; today some 10% of Ukraine’s population are physically challenged and about 6% are mentally challenged. People with functional inadequacies in their home country, feel the negative effect of many social problems connected to education, work, medical care, material-technical and informative guarantees of full-fledged integration into social life, and thus feel stigmatized.

Liudmyla Sukharieva, Caritas Ukraine Coordinator of Work with Challenged Individuals, states: “This autumn, artists held 20 master classes with challenged youth in Lviv, Stryi, Drohobych and Ivano-Frankivsk. Young people with special needs felt happy in being involved with creating art objects. Primarily, it offers a special atmosphere, an improvement in their mental status, communication abilities and overall personality development. Also this project assists in integrating and socializing the challenged people into the community and thereby to change the awareness of society towards challenged individuals.”

The organizers of the project believe that every year the art project will extend its geography and size and will become an integrated part of Ukraine’s Christmas festivities. You can join in supporting the continuation of the art project of Caritas-Ukraine for challenged youth with artists by buying their handmade gifts in the stores of Lviv Handmade Chocolate:

in Lviv at 3 Serbska St., Lviv Handmade Chocolate, tel.: 032 235 41 60, 050 430 60 33;
in Ivano-Frankivsk at 6 Mazepa St., Lviv Handmade Chocolate, tel.: 098 608 57 09,

or by making a charitable donation to the account 2600801913626 in the Central Branch PAT Kredobank, MFO:325365, International Charity Fund Caritas-Ukraine, EDRPOU 21695710 (please soecify: this donation is a charitable contribution to the art project for youth with special needs).

Reported by Nadiya Chorna

Note:

Caritas Ukraine directs its work on developing assistance to people who are developmentally challenged. In 2008 through the project, Network of Recreation Centers and Social Rehabilitation for People with Special Needs in Ukraine, based of an already existing center for challenged youth in UGCC Caritas Lviv, there were also centers opened in Ivano-Frankivsk and Drohobych.

Today Caritas Ukraine coordinates the work of four centers for challenged individuals. These serve some 100 challenged youth and their families or caretakers, with no regard for nationality of religious affiliation.

Goals of work with youth with special needs:

Providing social and psychological assistance to challenged individuals;
Aiding the integration of challenged youth into the local communities and society in general;
Promoting the independence of challenged individuals by teaching them social skills;
Providing psychological and moral support to family members of the challenged individual;
Increasing the organizational skills of the four centers of activities;
Expanding the awareness of the existence of this issue in society.

Contacts: Olya Kravchenko +38 096 608 64 55, [email protected]
Nadiya Chorna, + 38 099 090 23 55, [email protected]