Like many people in Ukraine with an intellectual disability, Dmytro Bodnarchuk has spent much of his life in institutional care.
Now a 29-year-old, who was orphaned, he has had to navigate Ukraine’s vast network of grim institutional settings, a throwback to the Soviet era.
The Rozdil institution in Lviv, western Ukraine, is home to himself and 85 boys and young men with disabilities and intellectual impairments.
The number in the institution has swelled since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, taking in many residents from other institutions in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region.
READ MORE
The Rozdil facility has been transformed by the Irish charity Effective Aid Ukraine and the Lviv municipal authority into a playground with wheelchair-accessible play equipment, an outdoor gym, a football pitch, water features, toilets and outdoor shower facilities.
The site had previously been an area of wasteland at the institution, a fact which reflected the poor facilities the Ukrainian state has sought to upgrade for many years at such institutions, but lacked the financial resources to do so.
Bodnarchuk says exercising on the fitness equipment, riding the swings and playing football provides him with the stimulation he needs to live a full life.
“I love swinging on the swings, the carousel, and using the exercise machines here.”
Effective Aid Ukraine, previously the International Orphanage Programme, operated mostly in Belarus for more than two decades, but changed its name and focus after the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.
The charity is now focused on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and has built 76 playgrounds to date in the last four years.
The Rozdil playground is the biggest of these, and a first step in an ambitious programme to provide five modular homes to allow up to 20 residents to live independently.
The opening of the playground on Friday was attended by the governor of Lviv province Maksym Kozytskyy, and the Irish Ambassador to Ukraine, Jonathan Conlon.
Conlon said the support given to Rozdil was part of the solidarity Ireland had shown Ukraine since the Russian invasion began.
“That solidarity extends to supporting some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens,” he said.
[ From Greystones to Ukraine with SUVs and medical suppliesOpens in new window ]
“What has been achieved at Rozdil demonstrates what can be accomplished when local leadership, international partners and civil society work together. This project is helping to improve lives today while also supporting Ukraine’s long-term social development.”
Kozytskyy praised the work of Effective Aid Ukraine in helping the country transform to EU standards of residential care.
“The independent-living initiative announced today represents an important next step in that process,” he said.
Tom McEnaney, founder of Effective Aid Ukraine, said he hoped the new facility will “become a model that can be replicated across Ukraine.”
.
