Ukrainian Volunteers Offer Lifeline For Children With Disabilities In War-Ravaged East

Mykyta, a 13-year-old with learning disabilities, waits outside his home in the village of Tetyanivka, less than 30 kilometers from the raging war in Ukraine's Donetsk region. For children such as Mykyta who live near the front, the volunteers who come several times a week are a lifeline, offering the only interaction they will receive outside of their immediate families.


 

A local woman carries groceries past houses that were damaged during fighting.

Unlike those living in urban areas, children in villages near the front often lack schools and in-person contact. The Ukrainian volunteer collective Base UA is trying to address this issue by sending teams of volunteers to the Donetsk region for stints of several weeks at a time. 

Volunteers Svitlana Korzun, 23, and Valeria Bezkluba, 28, interact with 16-year-old Ivan, who has cerebral palsy. He is one of about 500 children helped by the volunteers, whose main aim is to foster creativity and communication among children, including those with special needs.

For most of 2022, when the Russians were less than a kilometer away from the village, the shelling was especially frightening for Ivan.

"He couldn't sleep at night," recalls Ivan's grandmother, 76-year-old Olena Martynenko, the boy's primary caregiver (pictured) as he interacts with volunteers Korzun and Bezkluba.

 




 

In the summer of 2022, Martynenko and Ivan, along with the boy's mother and another relative, were evacuated to Dnipro, a city further from the front line, and spent several months there. After the Russians were pushed back in a Ukrainian counteroffensive that autumn, the threat to the village subsided and they returned to a damaged home that still bears the scars of war and a village surrounded by dangerous mines.

Bezkluba recalls how Ivan used a tablet connected to the Internet to send her a video message expressing his gratitude for her visit -- a tool the volunteers had taught him to utilize.

"He said he was grateful for the experience and that he had done things he didn't even know he had the ability to do."

For the past eight months, when staffing levels allow, Korzun and Bezkluba have come to spend an hour or two with each child in the village to provide them with much-needed face-to-face time.

"I don't just want to do this to tick a box. I want to really help," Korzun said.

Volunteer Bezkluba gives a high-five to Mykyta after a visit to his home.