The project "Parasolka" was created by non-governmental organization "Medical Aid Committee in Transcarpathia" (CAMZ) in close cooperation with the Swiss Association "Parasolka" under the patronage of the network "Switzerland–Transcarpathia/Ukraine (NeSTU). The project coordinator Lesya Levko tells about its idea – to create an exemplary institution for young people, which will help spreading the practice throughout the country.

– How did you begin your project?

– Our project is called "Parasolka". It had been developing gradually on the basis of Vilshany orphanage in Transcarpathia. In Soviet times it was the institution of the closed type. The children who turned 18 years old were transferred to the male and female psycho-neurological residential care facilities.

The mission of the French organization "Medical Aid Committee" arrived to Transcarpathia in the second half of the 1990s. Its experts had been working in Vilshany orphanage for more than seven years. The certain approach as to special children had existed in Europe long before: they were taught, they had their own achievements. Here, it was considered that such a category of disability could not be undergone any educational work.

– Has this inspired you for a new approach in work with these children?

– Yes, the French experts together with their Ukrainian colleagues and the stuff of the orphanage developed training programs, individual work plans and diagnostics for each child. In addition, they created the so-called workshops: kitchen, weaving, sculpture and more.

By the early 2000s, their work has shown very good results. More than 20 children had successful completed the learning process, and when they reach the age of 18 years old it was pity to transfer them to the psychoneurological institutions.

It was the point when we decided that we should create the establishment of European sample for the youth. We decided to open the center for these young people, where they would live by two in a room and had good opportunities for further development. In addition, we decided to organize different types of activities on the basis of this center-dormitory. For example, one can do farming or weaving, which is common in our area.

Now, the project includes young people having 3rd or 4th category of disability and reaching the age of 18 years old. That is the most difficult group. They would have no future at all without our project. As soon as the legislative framework made it possible to send these young people to a psychoneurological institution, and give them the opportunity to stay with us for up to 35 years old, we finally went to the length of our project.

– Was it difficult to implement the project?

– At first, we were looking for a suitable building for this purpose. Certainly, we had to find a sponsor for the project. We had contacts with a Swiss organization, which had previously worked in Transcarpathia on environmental safety after the flood in 1998-2001. We presented our project on youth center creation to this organization and they agreed to cooperate. With their help, we purchased the appropriate building for dormitory, and a large area – about two hectares of land.

After the building became our property, we started looking for money for repairs, purchase of equipment, as well as securing many legal approvals. In parallel with this work performance, we together with our Swiss partners have developed rules and concepts, which now are effective in our center. Yes, it was difficult, sometimes even much. But we did it. Since the site purchase and till the present date, the costs spent for the center, its equipping, arrangement of the workshops and farms amounted about 1 million euros.

In 2009, we opened our Center and 25 young people moved into it. At that time we had only one building. We have equipped workshops for training i the basement. But then, we still had to do a lot of work on the area refinement. Now, we continue our active cooperation with the Swiss organization and have even signed the relevant agreement.

– And how is your Center funded today?

– All our pupils are orphans. It means that an institution is funded by the government and our Swiss colleagues pay us various subsidiary events.

– What are your plans for the future? There are 25 young persons study in the Center at the moment. Will you enlarge their number?

– We would like to show that, contrary to popular belief about these children and adults having 3-4th groups of disability (this is especially schizophrenia and cerebral palsy), who attend the classes on developed system, they become less aggressive, learn to live in our society. Many are surprised how our pupils can sing, dance, take an active part in various events.

Our main goal is to become a separate Center working with these children. Today's dependence on the orphanage in Vilshany limits our activities. And we are working in this direction with the management of the orphanage and with local authorities. In addition, we want to keep our department to be small. It is an European practice. We also think about assistance to disabled children living in the families. We want to give them the opportunity to cooperate with our Centre.

One more our goal is to share our experience. We are approached by interested partners, and we provide them with the necessary information. Our project was planned as a pilot ones, demonstrative, and therefore the standards of our activities shall function in other institutions.

The electronic version of the magazine "Autism today"