DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS INCLUSION IN UKRAINE AND BEYOND BORDERS Mariya Yasenovska, Olena Zinenko, Kateryna Kormilets February 2023  In the first year of the fullscale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the network of partners of the KRF«Public Alternative» gathered at the annual accessibility festival «Inclusion Fest 2022» online and shared their experience on how to quickly make decisions to save people’s lives, provide assistance in organizing evacuation and further accommodation.  The importance of inclusive culture is increasing: available spaces become shelters, and creative workshops are rethinking as tools for living with trauma and finding new meanings in life.  New foreign experiences make it possible to reflect on one’s own achievements and expand one’s horizons, this is a chance to make Ukraine better.

DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS INCLUSION IN UKRAINE AND BEYOND BORDERS

Contents Introduction 4 1. INCLUSION: 2022— KEEPING IN TOUCH 5 2. CULTURE IN THE WAR ZONE 10 3. CULTURE: DISPLACEMENT TERRITORY 17 4. INCLUSION AS A CHANCE FOR PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RESTORATION 21

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS  This publication is a collection-­diary of thesis and quotes from“InclusiON: 2022. Beyond borders” festival The“InclusionON Fest” is an educational and cultural information project aimed at bringing the European experience to Ukraine in order to solve the problem of rebuilding and creating a barrier-free urban environment in general and culture in particular: these are both problems of physical accessibility of public spaces, and the problem of misunderstanding the need to include people into society, taking into account her personal needs, the problem of the silence of important topics in society, the invisibility of a person with a disability. In 2020, the festival partly became an event in emigration with the study of experiences outside borders, improving mastery of tools for long-distance interaction. Organizers: Kharkiv Regional Foundation“Public Alternative” with the support of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Ukraine. The purpose of the festival is to activate the local community, state institutions, and businesses to solve the problems of the barrier-free urban environment, form a culture of inclusive communication, share experiences and promote the development of inclusive initiatives in the city of Kharkiv and in Ukraine in a situation of war and communication beyond borders. Festival became a test of our connection across borders, on the other it was a space for discussion about new experience which Kharkiv activists and inclusion activist got because of forced relocation and being in a state of war. Representatives of cultural organizations and NGOs, activists who are involved in the inclusion implementation participated in the festival. Kharkiv, Lviv, Brussel, Frankfurt on Oder, Saarbr ü cken, Stockholm and other European cities were connected by the chain of Ukrainian initiatives which stubbornly continue to keep in touch. Right here and right now. The festival was held online but we talked about live of people with disabilities and activists of inclusion movement in Ukraine and beyond it`s borders. Let`s define the conditions. The festival was held from mid-­ November until mid-­December 2022. During that period of time the lights on Ukrainian cities were turned off due to the damage of electricity supply infrastructure as a result of missile attacks from the Russian Federation. There were four meetings, one of them had to be rescheduled exactly because of the electricity problem and inability for participants, who agreed to join to connect to the online session. Online-­ meetings format we mastered during the quarantine due to the COVID‑19 in 2020–2021. And it allowed Ukrainian people all around the world not to get confused and keep in touch. We are grateful for the opportunity to hold the festival and develop this collection to the Representative Office of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Ukraine and the participants who are not giving up and continue to do their job as much as it is possible. Photo 1 Participants of the festival at the first meeting. (Text on the picture:“InclusiON: 2022. Beyond borders”, who? Where? What can we do? Say? In Ukraine Beyond the border) 2

SWEDEN: Stockholm BELGIUM: Brussels INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS POLAND: Gdansk, Sosnovec, Katowice Photo 2 The Inclusion Fest 2022 Map. GERMANY: Saarbr ü cken, Stuttgart, Frankfurt on Oder, Berlin UKRAINE: Kharkiv, Uzgorod, Stryj, Lviv “INCLUSION: 2022. BEYOND BORDERS” PARTICIPANTS Mariya Yasenovska, president of the Kharkiv Regional Foundation“Public Alternative” Olena Zinenko, media researcher, project coordinator of Kharkiv Regional Foundation“Public Alternative” Natalia Ivashura, head of the workshop studio for teenagers with autism NGO“Special workshop— Art for autism, lecturer at the sub-faculty of correctional education and special education in Kharkiv humanitarian-p­ edogogical academy. Kateryna Kormilets, communication manager of Kharkiv Regional Foundation“Public Alternative”, Kharkiv State Academy of Culture student Ganna Zadorozhna, research associate of Kharkiv art museum Kostyantyn Vasyukov, director and principal of the«Publicist» theater Kateryna Vasyukova, actress of the Silezkij theater of Stanislav Vyspyanskij in Katowice, theater«Nafta»,«Publicist» Svitlana Masova, representative of«Stancia Uzh» and playback theater«Zhive Dzerkalo» Natalia Zvyaginсeva, manager of the«InKultur» project Olena Shyngaryova, principal of Kharkiv NGO of people with disabilities«Creavita» Alina Bogdanovich, actress, director of the«Platform of theater initiatives» Olena Chernucha, tour guide of Krarkiv touristic-­ informational center Maria Latugina, co-worker of Kharkiv touristic-informational center 3

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS Introduction Before the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia to Ukraine official statistics pointed out that there are 2.7 million people with disabilities living in Ukraine, which is 6% of the total population of Ukraine. The full-scale attack was provoking a unprecedented humanitarian crisis across all country. According to the international organization`s estimations almost 7 million of people became IDPs and other estimations showed that from 4 to 7 million found a shelter abroad. According to the International Organisation for Migration data around 23% of IDPs have disabilities and according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees data 13% of families who moved abroad have at least one member of the family with disabilities. Until the 24th of February 2022 the biggest problems in the field of observance of rights of people with disabilities were discrimination, exclusion, and violence. With the beginning of the invasion inaccessible premises for temporary shelter, lack of access to food, unavailable information, low-quality logistics and problems with the evacuation of children added to the already existing problems. Ukrainians with disabilities who are looking for a shelter also risk finding themselves in segregation in care home institutions along with informational and social isolation. It seems that in this condition’s survival questions have completely overshadowed the importance of cultural rights and made it impossible to even talk about inclusion in culture. Indeed, people began to massively leave the country, institutions were closed, supporting programs such as Ukrainian cultural fund, stopped their activity. Nevertheless, with time it became clear that places which had physical accessibility were becoming an asylum for all people who were escaping the horrors of war and programs of involvement in cultural activities began to become a possibility for psychological support and rehabilitation. People started to look for a possibility to express their worries, emotions and experience through art, cultural initiatives turned out to be spaces for talking and socializing, foreign partner`s and volunteer`s participation created conditions for living through personal experience in conditions of support. So inclusion in culture, not only step by step, returned it`s meaning in modern society processes but also has gained additional meanings and roles. 4

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS 1 INCLUSION: 2022 — KEEPING IN TOUCH  On why it is important to stay in touch spoke Mariya Yasenovska. Mariya Yasenovska. We were thinking for a long time if we should hold«InclusiON» this year. We decided that it is not only our wish but it was also a need. Part of our partners movedout abroad, the other part to different Ukrainian cities, someone even stayed in Kharkiv. And we, even in our work, are feeling that contacts are being lost. It is already hard to understand who is doing what, what is happening to those, who left. what it is possible to do in the field of cultural and inclusive initiatives. Third– general discussion, we would like to talk about those barriers that exist now(obviouslyexcluding the barrier which is directly connected to military actions). And, in fact discuss to what extent inclusion is on time now and what I possible to do for the questions of inclusion and for inclusion of people with disabilities who were not forgotten. Our plan looked roughly like that. It is understandable that it is not the same format that was before. Main goal: restore connections between organizations and initiatives. Because the war will be over sooner or later and it would be good to have the same vision for future, especially in a situation like now. In fact, the goal of our meeting is just to talk about where is everyone and think about how can we use it for common good. The first part is about those who left and what is everyone doing now and what experience she can bring to Ukraine. Second — about those initiatives which work in Ukraine and Olena Zinenko. We have our hypothesis about the present challenges, which, obviously, are based on our experience and we would like to check it with you, with people who weknow not for the first year, to what extent our hypothesis about challenges(firstly, it is communication challenge) are right and maybe there is something, that we did not hear, did not see or did not feel. Photo 3 Hall of the Kharkiv Art Museum after the shelling. Photo: GWARAMEDIA 5

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS Ganna Petrykina. It is very nice to see familiar faces. I was sitting and thinking for how long we know each other. Since 2016, I believe. I am a typhopedagogist, a teacher from a special school named after Korolenko. I work with museums in Ukraine and I am highly interested in questions of inclusion in museums. Basically, how art and culture can be accessible and opened to people with disabilities, to blind people. To me it is especially important because I have a son with vision impairment. Now I am in Germany working as a volunteer. I stay in touch with different organizations in Germany, Poland and Ukraine. I know about the problems faced by blind people in Germany. I work with children in Ukraine as well, our school keeps functioning online. I am such an example, you know, when I am not in Ukrainian, but still a teacher. Children and I say:«We have our own battlefront and we are fighting too. We fight for our right to knowledge». Mariya Yasenovska. Thank you, Anya. We decided to hold this— well, at least we will see each other. At least we will talk. Thank you. Mrs. Svitlana, I don’t know you personally, tell us about yourself. Svitlana Masova. My name is Svitlana, on this meeting I represent Natalka Shevchenko. She asked me to come to this meeting because she was not able to. Our team is in Uzgorod right now. One of the areas of our activity is a playback theater. As part of the«InclusiOn» festival we made playback performances for people with hearing impairment. It is an inclusive theater performance, which we just made in Kharkiv not a long time ago. Well, in general, we are from Kharkiv, now we are in Uzgorod. Mariya Yasenovska. Thank you, Svitlana. Ganna Zadorozhna. Hello, everyone. My name is Ganna Zadorozhna. I am a research associate of Kharkiv art museum. Thanks to the«InclusiON» festival inclusive audio guides appeared in our museum. There are two of them for now: domestic art and west European art. Also, this year we got four tactile copies of compositions. And overall, we are working together for many years already and we are very grateful for that. Right now, I am in Kharkiv. Mariya Yasenovska. Thank you. Kostyantyn Vasyukov. I forgot to tell how I am connected to the«InclusiOn». Mariya. Go ahead! Kostyantyn Vasyukov. With«InclusiON», I do not remember, maybe we did collaborative events and I participated in them. But I am in a close relationship with«Public Alternative». We made a project«The one, who dies» together. It was a performance and organization of an art camp for children with disabilities. We also made round tables. This year I was supposed to manage a project: a performance for people with vision impairment. It is unfulfilled because the war had started and Ukrainian Fund of Culture froze the project. Dmytro Krupka. Hello, everyone. I do not belong to any organization. I was a public activist in Kharkiv. Sergij Zhadan and I were holding a charity event, collecting money to buy a laptop for a blind girl. Back then it was much idea to hold a charity event in Kharkiv literature museum. Other than that, I was an assistant of the Kharkiv City Council Deputy, I tried to convey to the authorities what inconveniences are there in Kharkiv to the blind people. Also, I participated with Mrs. Photo 4 «The one who dies» performance. Photo: Vika Bulka 6

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS Photo 5 The Square of Freedom. Kharkiv. Illustration: Michail Ivashura Mariya in google maps creation. It was also interesting, sometimes I think about that. Now I live in Gdansk. I was not acting actively because my arm was broken, but now I am establishing links here. I also compare the level of accessibility here in Gdansk and in Kharkiv. But from the new year, most likely, we will go to Canada, and we will need to start all over again. Mariya Yasenovska. Yes, I would like to add that Mr. Dmytro was the first and very active tester of all our inclusion products. Dmytro. Yes, I was participating very actively, and I am proud of that. Olena Zinenko. It is very important and effective when we can manage to develop inclusion products exactly this way. Mariya Yasenovska. It is really nice to hear that. Olena Zinenko. Often, we are unable to reflect on what we did and because of that the realization of experience does not come. Maybe now exactly these challenges gave us a chance to realize what we did or move on. Natalia Ivashura. I am in inclusive education more than 15 years and I have a big reason coming with me. We attended school and learned what inclusion centres are and how to make them more effective. We have got a workspace for teenagers with autism in Kharkiv, which, unfortunately is functioning now only as a humanitarian center. But we hope that we will come back and work. There are a lot of things that connects us to«InclusiON». Besides that, I am also a lecturer and my future defectologists and speech-l­anguage pathologists every year wait to participate in the festival. We are always happy to be participants of the festival and provide our space. Now we live in Stryj. Today we went to Lviv because Michajlo(Natalia`s son, an artist with disability) got his first fee. We drew a cover for a poetry collection«On our land» of Yulia Olefir. And he bought himself a phone with that money. Olena Zinenko. This year`s festival«InclusiON» is about us needing a connection. It is a big plus that we can use modern technologies. Festival is about us overcoming the barrier 7

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS beyond borders. Trying to unite. And this time it is about us. About those, who participated in previous year`s festivals and about those who joined and helped«InclusiON» to show the most various inclusion practices. Mariya Yasenovska. I have an idea. I think it would be cool to connect all our activists who are in Germany to local organizations. Olena Shyngaryova. Yes, because this feeling of vacuum is what keeps you from improving and living on. Olena Zinenko. There is an interesting thing. When you are moving and meeting people from Ukraine who moved earlier you understand how the context in Ukraine changed. People took the context that was there. I caught myself thinking that it changed for better. When you find those who think alike you understand that they also need to be immersed to the context. You need not to tighten your circle, you need to communicate with German people and Ukrainian. For me it is also about inclusion, about inclusion as a value that helps society to progress. Svitlana Masova. One of the actresses from our theater, Veronika, is also in Krakow and she is making playback theater and working together with local theater. Ganna Petrykina. On the 23rd of February I was on the Sumskaya 55 street(Krarkiv special educational complex named after V. G. Korolenko) for the last time. There are children there from all across Ukraine. On the seventh day of the invasion during shelling in the city center shock wave went towards school. We were taking out everyone. Escort was with teachers and parents. A lot of people started to ask the question:«How to move out?». People who were on some kind of support— it got frozen, stopped to cover needs. Children cannot wait. There were organisation`s we worked with:«Pravo vyboru»,«AriAri» fund in Poland and organizations from Germany. My family and I were helping people with vision disability to cross border. We contacted local organizations, initiatives and volunteers. I worked at the border for some time and faced a problem. Here is the situation: there is a bus of people with vision disability. They are being met on the Polish side, but it is not organized in a way for people from one community to go to one place. They can be divided to different organizations. But it is an important psychological moment: to be with someone who they trust, who they know. For a blind person who also loses the language it is another barrier. Now I continue to work with school, we are keeping in touch and continue to study. Now I am in Stuttgart and here is Photo 6 Kharkiv V. G. Korolenko special educational complex after shelling. Photo: Presentation by Natalia Ivashura 8

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS a strong organization Nicolaus Fliege which helps people with vision impairment. I help children who are blind and got to this school. For the adaptation process to be easier. Olena Zinenko. I remember this story. There are pictures in front of my eyes. I remember that the school got out in time before the planes came. Ganna Petrykina. Not all of the school, there were children still. When shock wave went towards school children were in the canteen on the ground floor. And only that saved their lives, because all doors and windows were blown out. Ganna Petrykina.It is the moment when you do not have time to plan. Everything is being decided at this moment. A bus came for us, and we were told we are going to Berlin. 48 people. We were ready. The bus came and a driver says we are not going to Berlin. Berlin is not taking people anymore. We need to go. Tell us where to. And you are just escorting. And then we went across Germany, came to Frankfurt. We were goingand the organizations were deciding who will take us. It is responsibility, people with disabilities. Something that is suitable to a usual person will not be suitable for them. I still have mothers who are desperate because the conditions are absolutely uncomfortable. But in fact, there is no other place. Natalia Ivashura. No, I have been to a lot of Ukrainian cities: Ternopil, Lviv, Dragobych, Dolyna, Stryj. We are going to Lviv to«party». When we were living in Dolyna we were going to Ivano-­Frankivsk. Not it is Stryj-­Lviv. Visiting fashionable cafes where people read and spend their time. Mariya Yasenovska. I am very thankful to all of you. I was glad to see you. Thank you for sharing yourtime. We also miss communication. 9

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS 2 CULTURE IN THE WAR ZONE  Does culture events and interaction have space in the War zone? Or is it not the time for culture? Our participants will talk about it next. Experience in organising cultural events on Ukrainian territory might surprise and inspire. Svetlana Masova. I will tell about what we are doing. Yes, indeed, inclusion related topics are on pause. Since April we started working actively. Here, in Uzhhorod and around Zakarpattia we hold open playback-­performances, which, luckily, find a response with locals, who had no idea what it is, and with many IDP  1 . Apart from that we are organizing workshops focused on relaxation, extracting and processing feelings. With different population groups. For example, there was a project for volunteers, it was called“For those, who are securing 1 IDP— Internally displaced person the home front”. Unfortunately, it burned out due to volunteering being a big problem now. We all cannot keep ourselves within limits, because we want to do something. And we do not notice that there is not enough energy to do everything. It was not only our work, but it was also a chain of events. Also, we are actively working together with camps. We have an ongoing project: master classes and performances for kids. This is organized by‘SOS Children’s Villages’. Earlier they were working with socially vulnerable groups. Nowadays it is the same, however there is way more social vulnerability. Most of them are children from family-type orphanages, but now a significant part is IDP children, children from deoccupied territories and a separate category is injured children. We also collaborated with a camp for mothers with children. Main category was IDP mothers, mothers from deoccupied territories, wives of military. It is hard to work with these groups, but there is a strong feeling how important it is what we are doing. We were shocked, when we were meeting IDP mothers, who are living in relatively safe places for a long time. We saw that their traumas, left by Photo 7 Slide about the pair exhibition of Vasyl Vereshchagin and Mykhailo Ivashura. Photo: Presentation by Natalia Ivashura 10

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS war, were not worked on. There is a feeling that people moved just few weeks ago. It is upsetting and scary, but at the same time it gives an understanding what should we do and how to act. Because not everyone can work on that on their own. Photo 8 Excursion to the resort“Berminvody”. Photo: Kharkiv Tourist Information Center “Clown Care” is also continuing. At this time, they are working with children’s shelters. Since January a new project should start, where they can go to hospitals. They feel a desperate need in this, their internal clowns are asking. It is sad and frustrating to see this should not happen. But it is, and that’s exactly why we must act. I’d like specifically to mention that we opened our own space. Thanks to patrons, in Uzhhorod we have separate art-space“Station Uzh”. It is based mostly on playback, but we are opened to different form, that are consonant with our values. It is meditative practices, and musical practices, and movie screening. If there is an interest, we would like to provide this space. We are proved of it, love it, and we want it to be useful for our society. So, contact us, when needed. This space is not too mobile. Two-storey space, main place is second floor, 70 square meters. It can accommodate 40 spectators. There is also a patio. For us it is important to be accessible, but in Uzhhorod it is challenging. However now we have many contacts we can come to terms with. With our performances we were going to Lithuania, to Poland, to our refugees.“Like at home” was the first feedback. As there is a fear that those who left will stay there. So, we are glad we did it and we are opened to other proposals. Mariya Yasenovska. There should be the organization “Roads of life”. My Brussels company helped them to create accessible temporary space for people with disabilities, who are planning to go abroad. There must have accessible space. Olena Zinenko. There is a decent gender center in Uzhhorod. Maybe this will be useful. Olena Chernukha. Project#OneStepAhead was held on the base of sanatorium Berezivski mineral waters(next— “Berminvody”). Our work was aimed at creation of mobile tourist information center to dissemination of information regarding opportunities of outdoor and recreational activities on Kharkivshina and forming constant interest to touristic diversity of native land. We were engaged in organising psychological discharge events for internally displaced people. Along with that another goal of our project was to activate medical tourism through forming positive reputation of sanatorium“Berminvody” and Kharkiv Medical Association achievements popularization. At that time at the resort“Berminvody” there were many people from Kharkiv, Chuhuiv, Ruska Lozova, therefor from the hottest areas. They all were emotionally exhausted and been living through a lof of stress. We tried to get people involved, to let them in join tours and distract them from everything they’ve been through. We were lucky with location: Historical Museum of resort “Berminvody” is a place with history. Tours consisted of narrations of Kharkiv science community achievements, worldwide known Kharkiv scientists and doctors. Also, a mandatory element of every tour was an introduction of Kharkivshchina‘s tourism potential. For that in a sanatorium we’ve opened a tourist informational center with a large set of printing products, maps, booklets etc. Main message is:“There will be tourism after the War”. Our center can help with that: organise vacations, various consultations, methodical assistance and so on. Within a month we had held 10 museum tours for IDP, 2 sightseeing tour on sanatorium territory, 12 presentations of touristic potential of Kharkiv region. Together with our partners we held events for theatrical tourism development“Mask, I know you!”. We were participating in organisation and promotion. Together with the Theater of the Young Viewer we organised the play “Thumbelina”, together with the Puppet theater—“There can be different Princesses”, together with the Theater of musical comedy— the concert of patriotic songs. Together with the Interregional Center for Humanitarian Demining and of the State Emergency Service we conducted 11

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS Photo 9 Communication with animals. Photo: Kharkiv Tourist Information Center Photo 10 Scott and Paul are volunteers from Australia. Photo: Kharkiv Tourist Information Center a training. Professional rescuers applied a gamification to teach how to render assistance, they talked about protection against chemical hazards and rules for evacuation. In fact, we are currently working on a new patriotic touristic route “Kharkiv— The city of heroic rescuers”. Our other partner is MI“Kharkiv Palace of Children and Youth Creativity”. Together we held the series of events “Nature unites”. For example, an event for children to contact with animal. We were lucky to meet volunteers from Australia. Scott and Paul were in Ukraine to help children without parental care. What conclusions we made while working on this project? Willingness to work gives rise to good ideas, but to implement those ideas and to achieve success is possible only by establishing a team of like-minded people. I think our meeting today will be a starting point for future collaborations. Thanks to the fact that we were working with theater initiatives and State Emergency Service it was not too hard for us to organise joint projects this time and renew psychological resources. Olena Zinenko. Have you collected feedbacks? Olena Chernukha. We have not collected feedbacks, but on our page, we were sharing experience. Olena Zinenko. Thank you! I often have hypothesis regarding therapeutic effect of these activities. And especially thanks to feedbacks usually your hypothesis can be confirmed. Natalia Ivashura. We are NGO“SPECIAL WORKSHOP— ART FOR AUTISM”. Before we experienced joys of such neighbouring as we have, we were doing: – providing psychological support to families raising children with autism spectrum disorder; – organising cultural and educational events; – including teenagers with autism in city’s cultural life; – identification, development of creativity and improvement of professional skills for teenagers with autism; – supporting inclusive environment development, especially integrating artists with autism into cultural field; – creating adaptive environment for talent growth, professional skills improvement, support artists with autism. Teenagers’ parents participated in all our events, since our main goal of our workshop is career guidance. That’s why it was very important for parents to participate and see the achievements of their children. We were visiting museums and galleries. We tried to let them know in advance that we are coming, so there was 12

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS some time to adapt the content. For us it was very important how opened people were. Kharkiv is ready for the collaboration of parents of children with disabilities and cultural and art institutions. We held fairs with creative works of our teenagers. This was an opportunity to hear feedback and gain experience in selling their crafts. For instance, we organised Art Exhibitions of Young Artists with Autism. We received many responses. This was something new for people: a person with autism made something interesting. during March shelling. We have two buildings: main building and exhibition hall. To Preserve part of the collection main building must be glazed. New windows are being installed now so we could turn on heating. We managed to evacuate the most valuable part of the fund, however another part remained in Kharkiv. Obviously, we cannot take visitors. All exhibits are hidden in the basement. Some of our staff are in forced downtime. Lately I`m working remotely from home. There was some work done to preserve the collection. The museum remained online. We are holding online exhibitions, Children’s Art Contests. We also had experience in Vasyl Vereshchahin and Mykhailo Ivashura pair exhibition“Hilky ta Rury”. This is a story of the universe, fantastic and urbanistic garden. Exhibition took place under Children Program Second Biennale of Young Art. For us it is important that others understand this is possible. We continue psychological support of our parents and students. Now our workshop turned into humanitarian center. There are those, who chose to stay, people from deoccupied territories, there are military. We are trying to help everyone. We worked in collaboration with Ukrainian digital artists. Our works were sold as NFT and earning were donated to Ukrainian Army. NFT is important for advancing creative potential of teenagers with disabilities. It is cool to learn how to sell this. The time we spent in Kharkiv, we were saved by art. Mykhailo was painting a lot. This process can might help explaining something. The process of creating painting is being discussed. We must understand, that person with disabilities perceive the world differently. They have to be explained why we cannot go outside or go to a shop. You have to teach already grown child to go to sleep in a foreign place, to navigate in new place, to search for accommodation. All these processes are too hard. In certain moment I closed all news channels for him, because it was too traumatising. Sometimes he says:“Lets go, train, granny, lets go, Crimea”. In those moments I tell him that we will certainly go when the war is over. And then he starts to recalculate everything that happened. Mariya Yasenovska. Thank you. I have a question. What would you recommend, for example, to Olena and all of us who stayed in Kharkiv. What should we do for children, who stayed in Kharkiv? Maybe, for instance, through art. Natalia Ivashura. Create questionaries, what exactly do they need. And how exactly? If it is an exhibition(even online), what to tell about? What was not done? The Attention that children with disabilities get is important. Hanna Zadorozhna. I will tell you what is happening to the museum right now. Unfortunately, physically the building of Kharkiv art museum was significantly damaged Iryna Mykolaivna Sydelova has developed the vigorous activity in Rivno. She met some artists and created interviews for the project“Art school: teachers and students”. This month(note— December) we summed up the results of Children Art Contest dedicated to Hryhorii Skovoroda. Almost 300 children illustrated“Kharkiv’s fables” and sent their drawings online. You can see works of the winners in the Kharkiv Art Museum social media. Mariya Yasenovska. Anyu, we saw, that you’ve launched something like selling virtual copies of museum’s paintings. Can you tell us about it? Hanna Zadorozhna. Yes, I know, that once Sasha Honcharov was working here. He initiated this and he is taking care of digital copies. Our director received some questions if we are selling original paintings. Olena Zinenko. Yes, NFT-auction is popular tool. For example, Borodianka rooster. This can be powerful tool. I remember how during first days of war the head of Western European Art section made a tour around empty halls of the museum. This was very powerful statement. Hanna Zadorozhna. Actually, she was one of those few, how arrived at the museum after first shelling. They saw the damage and were moving exhibits to the basement. Olena Zinenko. And what about tactile replicas we made during last festival? Did they remain? Hanna Zadorozhna. Yes, they are still standing. In fact, all works survived, only windows did not. Interesting thing is that in our office it was always cold. And when we started to exchange windows, we discovered that one window was a door. Mariya Yasenovska. Kostya, I know that your theater has been through a lot and that you remained true to art. Would you tell us what is happening with the theater “Publicist”? Kostiantyn Vasiukov. Together with Artem Vusyk we created a theater“Varta” on the 2–3 month after the war started. We gathered artists from different parts of Ukraine, who met in Lviv. First we released the performance“The first day of War”. We mediated around our own stories in the form of witness theater. We always had doubts if this is the time for theater. Who needs this? Do we have a right 13

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS Photo 11 Kharkiv’s fables“Eagle and Magpie”. Illustration: Ryhel Yuliia, 15 years to do such a peaceful thing? But it turns out that theater has changed, topics have changed, audience has changed. They confirmed that theater is as important for them as it was for us. I`d like to say that war changed theater greatly. I was listening to previous speakers, and I was trying to understand how we are adapting to these conditions. As a director of the theater and an actor I was connected to this place. We localized in Kharkiv KHADM long time ago. This is dear and lived-in space. It was hard to imagine how theater can exist beyond its space. I knew before that theater is about the people. Now I’m absolutely sure. After the war began, we all were scattered abroad, everyone left Kharkiv. Some of our people met in Lviv and created new theater with new people. I understood that our theater is in a strange state. As Scythians we can gather in an unexpected moment and artfully strike. In collaboration it is possible to find locations and resources for art expression. Now this is extremely important. So theater exists in a strange state, but works, plans and values its experience. The theater“Publicist” is working towards inclusion implementation for a long time. One of our victories, organised together with Kharkiv Regional Fundation “Public Alternative” was the show“The one, who dies”. This show was devoted to the topic of domestic violence, especially child abuse. We invited Leonid Baldin, public activist and implementor of inclusion principles in society. He helped us to translate the show to sign language and provided translation for the first show himself. In the show we were talking about violence against women and against those, who are anyhow different(can be disability as well). If war slightly changed focus topic for us, however plans remain the same. During the war the theater“Varta” made a show“She is the war”. One can say that this show is about tolerance, about emancipation. This is a show with women’s voices, about their real stories. These entirely women stories are showing us, let’s say, more niche point of view. Woman’s point of view is proving that they are not“weak”. Women at war are as good as men, but also set an example, for instance, for me. After 24 th of February I became a volunteer and forgot that, recently, in October, I had a premiere. I forgot all my plans and I was only volunteering. When I was asked what 14

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS I think about theater my answer was“I do not thing anything”. And then we felt strong support from our audience, and I felt importance of this work. This is needed in Ukraine and abroad. First show for“She is the war” was in July and already in August fund“Isolation” approved our tour in Ukraine. 7 cities, including Kharkiv. And then in September we performed at Human Rights Festival in Nuremberg. Germans do not feel war, they only see it on the screen. Some of our techniques were too radical for them. For example, singing OUN-UPA anthem together with Katia Ptashka (on screen). For them it was an expression of nationalism. Talking about the theater’s mobility: this is odd, but during the war we travelled more than in peaceful time. It is very strange, but tragic circumstances motivate us to act. This is beneficial for us and, as we learned, for the audience too. Talking about future plans: I was inspired by the news from UCF about out application, we submitted in January 2022. Project that passed expert evaluation will automatically be approved next year. I`m saying this because my inclusion project for our theater was highly rated. Now there is a chance to fulfil this huge inclusion work in 2023. On this project we are working together with Inna Falkova. She is cool choreographer, phycologist, arttherapist, who has great experience working with people with disabilities. This is a show. It would be easy to say that this is a show for a blind audience. But I’m always saying it is not. For me this is inclusion lines. Not when the show is made specifically for people with disabilities, but when this line is overall blurry. When you’re attending cultural events, you realise that there are equal opportunities here. And this is exactly the show of equal opportunities: sighted people and blind people can feel artwork with all their senses, except sight. This is the show with your eyes closed the show without a picture. It will be made by sounds, narratively. Here we will have a to do laboratory work to create an atmosphere. Actors will be guides. We will also have, so called, journey through the topic “Executed renaissance”. When younger generation was blinded by leftist ideas and become a victim of their implementation. That’s why the show is called“Blinded”. It is not because of physical blindness, but of mental one. For musical accompaniment we invited Roman Holoborda. He is talented musician from Kharkiv, and he is blind person. He has forbidden to use his trauma as definition for inclusivity of this project. This resonates with our values. For him and for us he is important as professional. It does not matter if he is sighted or not. We do not focus on this and we do not hide it. For us it is important that inclusive project does not have a focus on it’s inclusivity. Many artists are using demonstrative pity. We are deliberately avoiding emphasising. This is important identity, important artistic value. Photo 12 The show“She is the war”. Фото: https://www.facebook.com/theatre.publicist/ I will know the fate of this project already in 2023. Olena Shynharova. In NGO“Creavita” we continue to work in Kharkiv and support around 150 people. We deliver humanitarian aid, medical supplies, organise transport services. We even have arm-wrestling trainings: our athletes continue to practice. We are bringing them there and then back home. This is positivity that remains, and good that we have it. We also continue working on our YouTube channel DEAF Kharkiv – news. Reports from the city mayor and the governor of the region we are translating to sign language for people with hearing issues could receive this information. Information now is important, and we need to bring information to them in most comfortable form. Olena Zinenko. This is a new understanding of culture. What people in Ukraine do is exceeding all expectations. This is acting under stress. But culture is about what is holding you, this is a safe space. This is war humanistic discourse. I would like to share what we were talking about it with pupils. These are pupils who are writing their first works in the Minor Academy of Sciences. One of them wanted to write her work about military and cats. This is a story about the army. We are used to it being about pathos, about heroism. We were searching for a long time why this is important to research. We appealed to ethics, to Kant. Honour and dignity got new repre15

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS sentation. There is a place for love and carrying that goes beyond the usual ideas of masculinity. Experience in organising cultural events on Ukrainian territory during the war time might surprise and inspire for new projects. It is important to be aware of it and preserve this experience. What about culture and inclusion on displacement territory? We also discussed that during the festival. 16

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS 3 CULTURE: DISPLACEMENT TERRITORY Alina Bohdanovych. I am an actress, a cultural manager and an acting teacher. I am the leader of NGO“Platform of theatrical initiatives”. Currently I’m in Poland and this is… mentally difficult. When I came here, almost immediately I was recommended to contact a local puppet theater in Gdansk regarding partnership opportunities. At that time, they had an ongoing project“A guest in the house”. These are theatrical plastic workshops for Ukrainian children. During these workshops we were using the developed materials. We worked out some fables. Things were organised like this: first children watched fables and then they were making small paper or cardboard characters of these fables and had their own small performance. Then we started classes where sometimes there were more Ukrainian children then Polish. We immediately applied for residency from Polish Theater Institute and within this residency we made a show. The matter of integration of Ukrainian children was in the air, it was impossible to ignore. Or you’re making a project that is accessible for everyone. That is why there were many questions regarding the language of the show. First, we chose a fable that was written as a part of“Magic School of Theater”. We wrote it together with refugee children. As a result, we created a show without any words. We were inspired by this fable, but it was not in a script. The show name is Koniku. It is a story about love. Light, poetical moments of boy’s life. He becomes friends with a small horse. This story is about the contact between two characters. Now I started working for“Neighbourhood houses”. This is a culture club, so to say. Main idea is the following. People who are living in certain area and attending different workshops and events in this club could get to know each other, establish new connections etc. I will be a mediator between Polish organisation and Ukrainians. Now I live in refugee center. We are roughly 150 people here, including 30 children. At“Platform of theatrical initiatives” I was always organising some shows or events on St. Mykolai’s day. At some point I realised that the most children here are from the east, south and center of Ukraine. Many of them do not know that St. Mykolai is gifting small mykolaichiky. Gingerbread decoration masterclass in simple form. Especially for that I have learnt how to bake gingerbreads. I found a recipe on Folklore institute channel. I planned this to be an event for Ukrainian children, but in the end leaders of our center attended with their children as well. So, this event had also gained an integrational goal. Olena Zinenko. That is cool. Thank you. I thought that from the distance we better understand our experience. Mariya Yasenovska. That experience we’ve got in Ukraine helps us survive abroad. Skills, knowledge and contacts help a lot here in Europe. Hanna Petrykina. Good morning, it is a pleasure to be here with you today. First time I met“InclusiON” team was back in 2016. I saw a strong passion, determination and power of spirit to move our Kharkiv forward. And today things changed. This is such a pleasure to be a part of such a wonderful team. We did not have any time to prepare. We just mobilised ourselves to move forward. At first I was volunteering and helping out people with disabilities to go abroad. Now it is well-established systems, there are organisations, that help. But there is also a barrier we were not ready for. It is language. It turned out that now English language is a mediator. Problem is to connect parents and pedagogues. Educational systems are very different. In education our children require integrating the most and, on this path, there must be adults, teachers, artists that will make this process easier. Most teachers are willing to work. Not to lose this enthusiasm there should be people, who will unite. Olena Zinenko. We start to understand ourselves here, on this place, where we are, here and now. And forget those feeling we had before. Hanna Petrykina. We had those feeling. There was an exhaustion. When we worked on the border language barrier was an issue. There were different people, different situation. Volunteers should dedicate themselves completely. There was a moment when I had to stop. That is why I would like to wish everyone to have energy and enthusiasm to continue. Our major problem is language. In our city we discovered that integrational coursed are not designed for people with disabilities. Mariya Yasenovska. Germany has a reputation of the country with high level of integration of people with disabilities. But in my work, I see that Europe has never faced this amount of refugees and people with disabilities. 17

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS Hanna Petrykina. We see that people are ready to help, however there is not enough resources. I am in contact with local volunteers, who help with accommodation, they are on the edge. Olena Zinenko. I had a chance to compare Frankfurt(Oder) in 2017 and now. People changed a lot. Before, even when you spoke English to them, they’ve just turned away. Now they will find someone who can understand you. Their desire to help, to respond on any request is unbelievable. Due to quarantine they started to use social media and internet. There is now WIFI in public places. We, Ukrainians, have our custom habits of comfortable things and our understanding of comfortable spaces. Hanna Petrykina. I will talk about digitalisation as a pedagogue. In Ukraine I feel much more comfortable while working with online resources. I can use different resources and platforms. Here you need permissions and approvals. Teachers here are less independent. Olena Zinenko. My daughter receives her homework on a school tablet, through a program called Anton. I haven’t seen it, because she is not allowed to take it out and make photos. Everything is confidential. They have their own life there. It has some risks. Olena Shynharova. In the first place, I thank the organisers that we have this opportunity to meet. It is very important to meet like-minded people, especially now. In new conditions we need to apply acquired skills and get new unique experience. I am happy to be here with you and share how we lived last months. It is important to rely on our level of professionalism, to solve language issue and to get involved into the structure our European colleagues have. On Facebook we have a page“People with disabilities in Germany”. We post latest news and recommendations for integration for people with disabilities. One more problem people with disabilities faced is registration of their disability. In Germany it is very complicated process. We cannot get rehabilitation resources. Or for example wheelchairs, people arrived with what they had. My own wheelchair is quite old. We got lucky to be invited by our Polish colleagues to 8 th International congress in Brussel. There was a discussion about problems of Ukraine, how it is seen after the victory, how to rebuild it according to European values. I had an opportunity to speak and express my opinion. Masha, thank you for your support on this matter. Mariya Yasenovska. I have a bit provocative question for you. You had many cultural initiatives back in Kharkiv. For example, a show made together with Kharkiv Children and Youth Theater and Yana Zelenska“Seven crows”. Do you have time for culture initiatives now? Olena Shynharova. Yes, people want that, there is a need in that. We have one cultural project, that is currently in waiting mode. I was in touch with Yana, we spoke about renewal of“Seven crows”. First experience we had was“Twelve Ophelias”, then we had“Seven crows”. It is important to try to organise theatrical activity since people miss it. It is important, for sure, we just have to figure out how. I represent NGO“Creavita”. In March we made extremely hard decision to leave Kharkiv, because people in wheelchairs cannot even go to a bomb shelter. We went to Germany by my car and by a bus, provided by“Pulse”, taxi for people with disabilities. Then there was one more group of people, so now we are 30 people living in a city named Saarbr ü cken and small cities around it. Our friends were waiting for us, so at first, we lived in private hotel. Now everyone lives in separate flats. Of course, the hardest barrier is language. English language is not solving the problem. Translators were helping with searching for flats, and to solve other matters. Now we all are learning German. What else surprised me was a myth about inclusion in Europe. We thought, that Europe should be our example we should follow. People who were never in Europe before now asking a question. Where is this access we were hoping for? Some matters are indeed settled. Pedestrian zones and transport are reachable. But architectural accessibility is something to be worked at. Our project in Ukraine like inclusive model agency, theater plays are our achievements that Europe doesn’t event know about. Dmytro Krupka. Let me briefly tell you about Poland. I went to Dominican fair and met people, who organise museums in the dark. Now I do not know if I should call and remind them about myself or not. In general, Polish people are responding very well to a request for help. I tried to travel around by train. First I was going from Gdansk to Warsaw, but no one accompanied. My friend met me and helped to take a train to Augustow. However, on the way back I was accompanied. I left in Warsaw and thought that someone will meet me there. And only thanks to conductor, who just finished their shift, I was picked up from the train station. There are some inconveniences with accessibility. In Kharkiv I am used to take the right side of the street, but here there is nothing like this. There is a cycleway beside. I am led to the right. I am not saying it is bad, there is an instructor in Association of the Blind, who explains what to do, There is another inconvenience. When public transport arrive, doors are opening so I can orient myself and go inside. But here in Polish public transport you have to press a button for the doors to open. So first you have to find with door with your hands and them press the button. For that there are instructors, who would teach me how to orientate. Unfortunately I am not doing that yet, but I am curious to learn how it works. I talk to a girl from Sofia, from Bulgaria. She told 18

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS me it was the same there and this system was change because of constant complaints from people. I am working as a masseuse and looking for interesting contacts. There was an unusual event. I was interviewed by Polish journalist from Polish radio. And it appeared that she knows Laski. Laski is a center for blind people, here is a school for the blind. There are Franciscan Missionaries. Maybe you’ve heard of Elizabeth Chadska, how founded this great center. Olena Zinenko. Short and intensive for everything that is in Poland. Kateryna Vasiukova. I am an actress in the theaters“Publicist” and“Nafta”. I am in Poland but I have a feeling I’m on Rymarska. This is a place with books, look, I found a book about Ukraine in Ukrainian. There is about Derzhprom, about the building“Slovo”. I will start from the beginning. I came from the city named Sosnowiec. It is a very small city. There is only one theater. When I am telling them about Kharkiv they listen so attentively. I was provided with a one-room apartment. Me, my three kids and a dog. I moved in and first week was not going outside at all. I felt a great fear and stress. I saw there is no war around, but still had irrational fear that I get lost or the kids get lost. After two weeks there was a feeling“How is it that I am not doing anything? I need to repay people for providing me accommodation”. I felt I can strengthen to work as an actress. I said that I can clean or sell tickets. They gave me one and a half month to rest. Then this theater helped me to get into one project in another city. 15 Ukrainian women made a show about their experience called“5:00”. It was hard to work, to tell myself that this is important. I thought: why is this show needed? Everyone is around, they see and hear everything. But it was important after the first show, after empathic people were crying together with me. We got a lot of help, we were provided with a flat, there was even a babysitter for my kids. After that me and Nina Batovska got an offer to be employed as actresses. I already had two premieres. Even if not directly, everything is connected to Ukraine and war. During one play I have a monologue how I want to go to my bellowed to the Moon. I speak Polish, but you can hear that I am Ukrainian, so it is taken in completely different way. Another performance is“Laskavyi” by Litel. This is a story about Second world war, but of course they are telling about our war. There is a delicate approach to Nina and me. We had an opportunity to refuse. It is a hard topic, the topic of war and murder. You cannot step out of this context in your personal life and now you’re even working in it. But we didn’t refuse. It is impossible not to work. Especially to talk about Ukraine from this side. Also, together with Nina we made the play«Czuj ę do ciebie mi ę t ę ». This is a saying that can be translated from Polish as “I feel mint to you”, means something tender. A play about Lesya Ukrainka and Olga Kobylianska. About me and Nina as well, about our relationship. It was interesting experience, because it was the first time for us being directors, actresses, choreographers. We wanted to talk about something more than war. We wanted to talk about Ukrainian culture, about context, for Ukrainian language to be heard. There were some unusual feedbacks. People didn’t expect that, it was new sincerity and discovery. It is strange, but even if we are not speaking Polish people saw that me and Nina are different. How we are on stage, me are broadcasting this differently, our state. Regarding inclusion. I tried to analyze what have I seen about accessibility of the theater. Ukrainian subtitles are usually added to plays in Polish, there are separate dates for Ukrainians. For Ukrainians tickets are very cheap, it cost only 9 UAH. This show,“5:00” we are performing in small cities. Last time we performed I heard that someone is constantly talking on the first row. I was so offended.“How could you talk during the show?”. At some point I saw there is a boy, who does not see. So he hears Ukrainian language, but cannot read the translation, so there was a man who was quietly translating it to him. Photo 13 The show«Czuj ę do ciebie mi ę t ę ». Photo: Kateryna Vasiukova 19

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS Photo 14 The show«Czuj ę do ciebie mi ę t ę ». Photo: Kateryna Vasiukova case of ticket purchase a person with disability has to arrive earlier to receive their ticket. In any circumstances there is always a place for people with disabilities. I do not even have a accessibility question, questions“How will you get there?”. In Stockholm there is Astrid Lindgren’s and Tove Jansson’s Museum. This museum has several theme halls and realistic photo zones. There is a popular thing when visitors are entering a train car and going for a journey in a tunnel where you can see puppets and scenes from different books. So called journey through stories. Same system is used for Viking’s Museum. Obviously, this technology is specific for people with disabilities, especially in massive wheelchair. But they did everything for us. They`ve booked exact time and place, seats were removed etc. And this is happening in every cultural institution. My personal discovery is a subway in Stockholm, because it is especially complicated system. But the question“how will I get from point A to point B” is not appearing. Moreover, to leave the house there are special buttons. There is a remote that can open everything — balcony, elevator, entrance. That is what I would like to say about Poland. I am living close to Baltic sea. Not too far away, in Sopot there was a new inclusive beach opened this summer. It is important to make subtitle accessible. I was only one show in Poland that was accessible for everyone. It was a show performed by Paralympian. She was talking about her experience and did think she was always dreaming to do. She got an Oskar, she was rapping. Unbelievable show. It was possible to feel, to see, to touch. At the beginning we received help from activists in inclusion field. They are fighting for various initiatives. Main topic that I’ve heard from them is the following: centers where already adult people with disabilities could live separately from their parents and have all comfortable living conditions. Where they could work and have their own space. It is about conditions of supported living. Alina Bohdanovych. Regarding the experience I see here. I have experience from two countries. I now live in Poland and Yana is in Sweden. From time to time I am going to her. Experience is a bit different, because Poland and Sweden are different in terms of inclusion. For example, the project I am currently working in is very similar to what we did. Some people might remember the center“Fragments”. It is a small space for small amount of people. Sweden is different. In Sweden the matter of accessibility appears less. Children with disabilities can freely access Cultural Centers. Cultural Centers here are not the same to ours. There is enormous quantity for spaces, stages and so on. For some reason in Mariya Yasenovska. Subway is about understandable navigation. Navigation must be understandable in such confusing spaces and infrastructure facilities. It is cool clarity test. Overcoming challenges and barriers in our countries, achievements in culture field and accessibility we have seen, and personal contribution. All this is difficult and valuable experience we should talk about. Is there a request for inclusive cultural space, how to organise it and how it can help? Participants expressed their thoughts about this topic in our final discussion. 20

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS 4 INCLUSION AS A CHANCE FOR PHYSICAL AND PHYCOLOGICAL RESTORATION  The are too many barriers, but it is not stopping activists and they are ready to create and share new inclusion products. It was a fourth meeting of the festival. Natalia Zvyaginceva. I would like to happily tell you about our project INKuLtur. We are about inclusion in culture, our activity aims for the increase of accessibility in cultural In titutions for people with disabilities. We are implementing educational programs, creating online video courses and seminars about inclusion and accessibility. Also, we work directly with with cultural institutions, organizing expet’s meetings and many other things. In this case the most important for us is experience exchange with specialists, elimination of barriers and acknowledgement of the importance of inclusion and variety on all levels of society. We are in Berlin now and thanks to our parents we are represented in Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia. is not big and it tells about accessibility on three levels: on the level of staff, on the level of program and on the level of audience. Olena Zinenko. When you see a new course, you begin to understand your experience in a new way. There is also a course of inclusion understanding on our website, but yours has some answers that we didn’t find for ourselves. It is cool that explanatory courses appear. Alina. You made a course, Natatila made a course. I also made a course about creation of inclusive cultural product on the base of Regional center of culture and art before the invasion. It was held for workers of regional cultural institutions. There was supposed to be the last module on the 25 th of February. Valentyna Cholodok. Good evening, everyone. I am really happy to see you. Now we changed our facility, it can be accessible for everyone. We will open a rehabilitation hub in Kharkiv. It will be a space for rehabilitation of people during this hard time. We want to make this hub open and effective. And here we need your help as experts. Teach us, there is so much we do not know. We want an ability for people to come and just speak. Also, we have an offer about writing joint projects. I will talk about our free of charge educational online course. The main audience are beginners in inclusion within cultural field. Workers of cultural institutions who do not know much about accessibility but are very motivated to make their institution more accessible. Natalia Ivashuura. Mrs. Valentyna, I wanted to say. Our workspace is not functioning now, we work only as a humanitarian headquarter. And even now the is a huge demand. Parents of children with disabilities us if we are conducting classes. Ten experts of inclusion in cultural field are speaking about their professional and personal experience in nine videos. Participants of the course are learning what to pay attention at and on concrete examples will see how visiting a museum can be pleasant to anyone— from planning to actual visit. We developed an interactive base of experts in inclusion and accessibility on our INKuLtur website. Anyone who feels that he or she is an expert in inclusion can leave their contact information and we will add it to our base. We do not have anyone from Ukraine, by the way, so you are welcomed to join. When you are planning always think that a lot of families of children with disabilities do not know where to go. Because there are no institutions left in Kharkiv where they can just go and, let`s say draw with their children. I think when you will start to work on development and strategy for your hub you should pay attention to this, because now parents feel as if they are left behind. It is very hard for families with children with disabilities, especially with autism, to find options to leave their children and, let`s say, go somewhere. It is very hard to persuade them even for a one-day tour. I think in your updated strategy you can take that into account. Also, we developed an accessibility strategy.«How to make Valentyna Cholodok. Thank you so much. We have gathcultural institutions accessible to people with disabilities». It ered a lot of content during those years. And here we also 21

INCLUSION BEYOND BORDERS need your help. Why to adapt this content for people with disabilities? Maybe we should make subtitles or something else? Natalia Ivashur a. I would recommend supported living. The war started this thought among Ukrainian parents that live is dynamic. They found themselves in different countries and started to learn more about this question. A lot of teenagers with disabilities parents want to come back to Ukraine. They understood that educational system is not ideal in any of these countries. They are talking already about what they want to take from other countries, which experiences they want to adopt. But the majority definitely thinks: you cannot create conditions for the supported living, without creating a system of employment for these children. Mariya Yasenovska. Alina, please tell us what exactly from your experience would you like to take to Ukraine? Alina Bogdanovich. When we came to Poland we got to the environment, where adult people with disabilities live. And they have, probably, their main cultural activity— absolutely incredible orchestra, basically consisting of noise instruments. They did a support concert for Ukraine and people with disabilities who suffer from war in Ukraine. Olena Zinenko. Noise orchestra is something we did not try in“InclusiON”. Mariya Yasenovska. Olena and I were thinking. We should… better inclusion practices abroad since all of us are in different countries right now. If you remember, we did this in Ukraine and again, based on the inclusion evaluation questionnaire. Olena Zinenko. Now we should think how to make informational explanatory campaigns, how to escape our bubble. Which would actually provide us knowledge where they are not available. There are a lot of questions and a lot of things to strategically think about. Another thing: inclusion is about otherness. I was thinking that inclusion is about acceptance of difference and about perception of oneself as different. Readiness of society to make an otherness space which would be safe. So that is the question of creation of a safe inclusive space, which helps to recover physically and psychologically is now up-to-date as never before. 22

AUTHORS CONTACTS Mariya Yasenovska— president, analyst, human rights expert KRF“Public Alternative” Olena Zinenko— lecturer, media analyst, project coordinator KRF“Public Alternative” Kateryna Kormilets — activist, communication project manager KRF“Public Alternative” Consultant — Olena Uvarova Editor— Olga Syniugina Layout: Marina Duchnich Representative Office of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Ukraine. Felix Hett| Director of the Representative Office of FriedrichEbert-Stiftung in Ukraine. Borysohlibska 15A, Kyiv, Ukraine, 04070 Phone+38–044–234–00–38| Fax+38–044–451–40–3 All texts are available on the website: http://ukraine.fes.de/ Ordering/contacts: ukraine@fes.de Commercial use of all publications and others materials issued by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung(FES), is not allowed without the written permission of FES. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect views of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung(or organizations where authors work)

INCLUSION IN UKRAINE AND BEYOND BORDERS  In the first year of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the network of partners of the KRF «Public Alternative» gathered at the annual accessibility festival «Inclusion Fest 2022» online and shared their experience on how to quickly make decisions to save people’s lives, provide assistance in organizing evacuation and further accommodation.  The importance of inclusive culture is increasing: available spaces become shelters, and creative workshops are rethinking as tools for living with trauma and finding new meanings in life.  New foreign experiences make it possible to reflect on one’s own achievements and expand one’s horizons, this is a chance to make Ukraine better.