“If someone can’t take a step, I’ll come back and offer my help”
Participants in the camp on inclusive and sensitive volunteering learned to interact with, understand, and build relationships with people with disabilities, and sought solutions to pressing social issues through their own social projects.
Half of the barriers are in our minds
During an educational game on a terrace in the heart of the Carpathians, the participants held hands tightly, forming a circle. But when each person received a card with a random fate – 14-year-old Yana with severe hearing loss or 18-year-old Bohdan, an orphan without a place to live – the rules of the game forced them to let go of each other’s hands. By the end, everyone found themselves in completely different positions.
This moment served as a turning point for several dozen volunteers who had come to the Carpathians for a 5-day training session as part of the “Light Is Near: An Inclusive Space of Resilience and Empathy” project.
“Half of the barriers are in our heads – that’s exactly why such a big gap emerged. It’s very easy to judge others’ lives when you’re not in their shoes. If someone can’t take a step, but I can, then I’ll turn around and offer my help,” summarized Daryna Lynnyk, the project manager.
This phrase became the event’s central theme. Participants noted it as the most memorable part of the training.
From a “tangle of colors” to a chess strategy
The young people came to the training with specific goals: to gain a better understanding of the nosologies of children with special educational needs, to grasp the specifics of a social educator’s work, and to learn how to engage children in a variety of activities. One participant wrote directly on the “expectations map”: “I want to break down prejudices against people with disabilities.” The participants identified the main taboos themselves, placing judgment, criticism, and disregard in the red zone of the space.
They drew their initial emotions directly on rolls of wallpaper: a colorful tangle symbolized the confusion of the first few hours, fir trees represented the peace they had found, and rain with a flower signified the hope that the seeds of knowledge they had sown would surely sprout. Within just a few days, the flowers gave way to chessboard patterns, as the participants realized that inclusion requires a clear strategy. A brain and a heart appeared nearby—as the main organs they had managed to “level up” – along with a gazebo where exercises for psychological relief took place.
What does a child’s behavior tell Us?
The internal question every volunteer should ask themselves is: “What is the child’s behavior telling me right now?” The young participants learned to see anxiety or aggression not as tantrums, but as an unmet basic need – a concept explained in more detail by Svitlana Saliuk, a specialist in inclusive education.
This approach was put into practice in the universally designed craft workshops and quests – free of any spirit of rivalry or competition – organized by the project’s psychologist, Olga Yegorova. The participants agreed: if it’s a relay race, the criterion isn’t speed, but accuracy. If it’s a quest, the team can only solve the final puzzle if absolutely everyone makes their own unique contribution. Even the creative collage workshops for children conveyed a heartwarming message: “If we depict what we dream of, we won’t forget that dream, and it will surely come true!”
And to protect themselves from burnout, the participants created a “Garland of Resource Words”: ranging from uplifting thoughts (“after the sun sets, a new sun always rises”) to comforting gestures (“would you like some hot cocoa?” or “let’s take a breath and figure this out”).
Grounded Projects: From Infrastructure to Social Enterprise
The greatest value of the training lies in working with real, pressing case studies from Ukrainian regions. Thanks to volunteer coordinator Oleksandra Pluzhnyk, the teams learned how to transform abstract complaints into clear project proposals. For example, they justified a city’s infrastructure need to cover open storm drains with grates to ensure the safety of people in wheelchairs and mothers with strollers. Or they mapped out the steps needed to open an inclusive resource center in the community; they developed a strategy for organizing leisure activities in a region where, due to the war, the need for psychosocial relief had become critical.
The training participants skillfully transformed empathy into social entrepreneurship business models, as explained in more detail by Yelyzaveta Malcheva, a specialist in inclusivity development. They presented projects for pet stores, where a percentage of pet food sales funds animal shelters; computer clubs that provide free digital literacy training to older adults during off-peak hours; and clothing brands that purchase artwork and designs from people with disabilities. Through the creative “4D” methodology, concepts were developed for the “Grandma’s Recipe” hub – featuring artisanal baked goods – the “Ded Panas” active survival camp, the “Bird Migration” information club for Ukrainian students in Europe, and tactile zoos for veterans.
Stepping Out of the Bubble
Five days of intensive training concluded with a final reflection session, where everyone shared their experiences of personal transformation. Some were delighted with the structured knowledge they gained in project management, while others breathed a sigh of relief: “I’ve completely addressed my need for inclusion.”
“It was a valuable experience of stepping out of our own bubble, where absolutely everything turned out to be new,” the participants summed up. “But most importantly: we arrived at the training as a group of different people, and we’ll leave here as one big team. Because there was sincerity here. And sincerity is truly very important.”
The young people returned home not only with certificates of participation and their own notes, but also with a readiness to slow down in real life, turn back, and take by the hand those who are tired or unable to continue on their own.
The project "Light Nearby: Inclusive Camp of Resilience and Empathy" is implemented by the religious mission "Caritas-Spes Ukraine" with the financial support of Caritas Germany.
