Now persons with mental disabilities from Chernihiv can learn how to work in a mini-print shop and produce notepads. It became possible thanks to the Chernihiv charitable organization “Logos” and its project “Creating the mini-print shop as a model for employment for people with disabilities” supported by the UNDP “Civil Society Development Programme. While embarking on their adult lives, young persons with mental disabilities seem to be completely unprepared. Their lack of life and work skills is the result of their social isolation from their childhood on.

Within the framework of the project “The Dream is Close: from Youth Initiatives to Local Policy Involving the Vulnerable Groups of Youth” the Kherson City Center of Youth Initiatives “Totem” supported the initiative of the Kherson Office of the “Successful Action Generation”, a Ukrainian Organization for Visually Disabled People. This initiative involved people with visual disabilities, volunteers, and journalists in the city on a quest to assess the accessibility of the city infrastructure by visually disabled people and to offer recommendations for improvement. The project was made possible by funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and implemented by the UNDP Civil Society Development Programme.

Imagine a school in the village of Drimailivka, 70 kilometers outside of Chernigov.  The 30-year-old building is still in good condition, however the old windows are no longer able to keep heat from escaping in the winter.  Therefore the school’s 70 students freeze in their classrooms in the winter.  The old boilers work at full steam in an effort to keep the children warm, but their best is just not good enough.  Despite the fact that the children study in classrooms with temperatures of 16-17 °C, the school struggles to pay the large heating bills that it accrues due to the inefficient heating system.  In order to address this problem, in July 2009 the village council began actively seeking a solution to this difficult situation.

“Singing has been my dream since I was a child”, says Svitlana sharing her lifestory. “Back in school I would always participate in various singing contests and talent shows becoming a prize winner”. So when it was time to choose my future profession, I never had a second thought. Therefore, one of the leading Universities in the country training vocalists and other popular professions became my preferred choice”. After her studies commenced and Svitlana dove deep into student life the dream seemed to have a happy and promising future, until the moment when everything turned upside down. “After coming to terms with my condition the world around me just froze”, grieves Svitlana.