When Ukraine was shaken by the onset of large-scale military hostilities, DPO ‘Creativity’ started its work in March 2022 to unite people with different disabilities.

We just had to take action, because most of our staff were going through stress and required support, they needed someone to explain to them what was happening or at least to comfort them. People with intellectual and mental health problems were particularly affected. It turned out that the majority were afraid to go somewhere else. The new situation urged us to revise our programmes, seek new formats of communication to keep in touch with people and offer them some peace of mind. The March, April and May of 2022 were particularly tough.  We did not receive any help from any agency. It appeared that all agencies were focused on organizations working with internally displaced people. Neither municipal authorities, nor NGOs paid any attention to those who, for many reasons, were unable to leave.

After the deputy mayor responded to my request with the question “And why did you stay?”, I stopped knocking on doors. We did everything we could to survive. And we survived.

We tried to create a cheerful atmosphere at our events to inspire hope and faith in our victory and happy future. During our concerts we were seeing more and more elderly people in the audience – they wanted to go out and be amongst other people.

We are grateful to the National Assembly of people with disabilities for their help and support.

We continue with our performances, despite the power cuts and cold halls. Sometimes we have to use flashlights to light the stage and always wear our overcoats and jackets in the audience to keep warm. Every new day brings its own challenges and joys – joys, because we are together.

We stick together and we try to help others who are in more difficult situations. What is most important, we have stayed together, we stand strong and we did not give up. We continue with our creative work and it empowers us to go on.

Tetiana Shelug

DPO ‘Creativity’, Dnipro city