The public organization “Special Workshop – Art for Autism” reorganized its activities after the full-scale invasion of the russian federation into Ukraine. Out of almost twenty children who attended the workshop in Kharkiv, only two remained in Ukraine.
“Most participants of the workshop left. Up until now, only one more family has returned to Kharkiv. A large part of our work today is providing online support for parents. Two of our masters remained on the territory of Ukraine – Mykhailo and Denia. Each of them has a sewing machine with them. Everything that is being done now is being done by two teenagers,” said Mykhailo Ivashura’s mother, Nataliya.
Mykhailo and his mother are now in the Lviv region. They sew shopping bags, bunny pins that can be worn on outerwear or pinned to a bag, as well as other souvenir products.
“We try to do things that are practical in daily life. We had a thermal press in the workshop, which was used for printing drawings. Now Mykhailo only has a fabric marker to draw with. He makes drawings of heroic cities. We have now made samples, sent them to the printing office, and are waiting for the first printed postcards that can serve as a small gift. Most of the postcards depict Kharkiv sights. However, there are others too. One of them is the water tower that was in Mariupol. Another one is Gostomel airport,” says Nataliya Ivashura.
The team plans to take part in the conference held in Lviv. The proceeds from the sale of souvenirs will be donated to the mother of the poet Volodymyr Vakulenko, who was killed by the russian invaders in Izyum. Vakulenko’s mother is raising her grandson, Vitaly, who has been diagnosed with autism.
“We would like to help Vitaly Vakulenko and his grandmother, who is remembered only on memorable dates or anniversaries. We would like to remind you that the grandmother needs help, including financial help, every day. Each of us can find ourselves in such a situation. Now most of the children have parents, but in Ukraine there is no system that would provide assistance to the guardians on a permanent basis,” Nataliya explains.
Souvenirs can be purchased on the Workshop’s Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/Artforautismukraine
The public organization “Special Workshop – Art for Autism” is a partner of the “Global 2000 for Children of Ukraine” Fund. Together, the Foundation and the Workshop do great things.
“We received two tranches of UAH 30,000 each from Global 2000 for the Children of Ukraine, which we spent on the needs of the humanitarian program. In particular, we bought food and goods for children. We are also currently implementing a new project, the educational and therapeutic online program “First psychological help for children with disabilities”, which was financed by Global 2000 in the amount of UAH 39,000. Two groups of specialists in the field of special education will receive basic skills in psychological assistance and will be able to use them in working with children with disabilities. The background and the results of the project will be summarized in an electronic manual,” says Anastasia Angelova, a psychologist at the public organization “Special Workshop – Art for Autism” .
April 2 is International Autism Awareness Day. Autism, also called autism spectrum disorder, is a diverse group of conditions related to brain development. According to WHO, approximately one in every 100 children has autism.
photo: Natalia Ivashura