1,700 km in Search of Humanity: Honey, Bunnies and Explosions
This article was published in Ukrainian and then translated into English.
The representatives from our partner organisation Fight For Right embarked on a journey spanning nearly 1,700 km over three days, traversing nine regions, visiting four shelters, and engaging in dozens of meetings. The aim was to collaborate with local experts and assess firsthand the critical importance of accessibility in shelters serving people with disabilities.
Stop 1. Plyskiv, Vinnytsia Region
The renowned Ukrainian hospitality was evident from day one. We were warmly welcomed at the Myloserdia social centre in the Pohrebyshche community with a bucket of honey and heartfelt wishes for our efforts to improve shelter accessibility. A handcrafted stuffed bunny made by displaced residents became our team’s talisman for the journey ahead.
In Pohrebyshche itself, there are no more vacant places for internally displaced people, leading to the restoration of abandoned buildings in nearby areas. While the desire to help is palpable, these rural communities lack the support from international and local volunteer organizations that cities closer to the conflict zone receive. This presents significant challenges for those settling in nearby villages, including limited infrastructure, job opportunities, and essential services.
The landscape around Plyskiv is dotted with ravines and picturesque groves. While easy to admire from a car window, even a short 200–300 metre walk to the nearest store proves extremely difficult for those with musculoskeletal disorders and impossible for wheelchair users.
The shelter’s population is predominantly elderly, with only 17 out of 48 residents officially registered as having disabilities. Many openly discuss their chronic health conditions and past surgeries, while expressing hesitation about obtaining disability certification due to bureaucratic hurdles.
We met Anatolii (78) and Liudmyla (77), who have called the Plyskiv shelter home for the past six months. The couple barely escaped Lysychansk in the Luhansk region in early April 2022. Using their savings, they hired transport to Dnipro, where volunteers then assisted their passage to Vinnytsia. An acquaintance there secured them a room in a hostel.
“We’re not just displaced; we’re refugees. There’s a crucial distinction,” Anatolii explains. “In Dnipro, Liudmyla was on the brink of collapse. Her diabetes and other chronic conditions were taking their toll. Shortly after arriving in Vinnytsia, she suffered an attack. I was on crutches and helpless to assist her alone… Thankfully, volunteers rushed us to a medical centre. They provided emergency care before transferring her to intensive care, where we learned she had also endured a stroke. It was absolute hell.” Since then, Liudmyla has been bedridden, with Anatolii as her constant caregiver.
For nearly two years, the couple struggled to cover rent, utilities, and food at the Vinnytsia hostel. Their pensions barely covered medication, leaving little for proper nutrition. The move to the Plyskiv shelter proved to be a lifeline. “The care here is exceptional. God bless them all,” Anatolii says. “Please support their efforts; they do so much for us. Your organization’s contributions – installing a ramp, improving the entrance and flooring, and providing a new large boiler – have made an immense difference.”
While their apartment in Lysychansk still stands, the couple has abandoned hope of return. “Missiles rained down on our building… The town is without gas or water; everything’s been looted or destroyed. Elevators are inoperable, and occupying forces have seized many apartments,” Anatolii reflects, his gaze drifting to the windowsill crowded with medication bottles.
The shelter has reached its capacity, unable to accept new residents for the time being. Liudmyla Vakoliuk, who heads the Myloserdia Social Centre, shares their plans: “We hope to set up a few more rooms soon. Ideally, we’d equip them with accessible bathrooms – it would greatly benefit our residents. If only we could secure the necessary funding…”
Liudmyla Netskina, board chair of the NGO “Harmoniya,” joined us as an accessibility expert. She commended the evident care and commitment shown by the staff: “It’s clear that this team deeply cares about their residents and is committed to improving living conditions, not just with state funds but through other sources like grants. The mini-grant allowed for significant accessibility upgrades, including the installation of a compliant ramp and addressing internal barriers. While there’s still work to be done, the Fight For Right mini-grant has opened the administration’s eyes to the various funding possibilities available to them.”
We bid farewell to everyone as newfound friends, hopeful that the shelter’s administration will realize their vision of creating a fully accessible environment, both within the facility and its surroundings.
Stop 2. Mykolaiv
In Mykolaiv, we visited a small shelter operated by the city’s territorial centre for social services in the Inhul district, home to 21 residents.
Nearly 90% of the inhabitants are elderly. Rather than complaining about conditions, they actively volunteer, setting up a room where they knit camouflage and warm items for defenders. They care for their temporary housing diligently, making repairs to rooms themselves to accommodate more displaced persons. Additionally, a separate organization was established to purchase and renovate abandoned houses, providing them to families who lost everything in the war.
With support from Fight For Right, an accessible ramp has been installed for the shelter residents, along with a renovated room and bathroom.
Yurii Stepanets, an expert and volunteer who also serves on the Mykolaiv City Council, joined us to assess the shelter’s accessibility.
“The audit proved that ensuring accessibility for people with disabilities is extremely important… especially in times of war! Entrance areas, sanitary rooms, and bedrooms — basic necessities — are now accessible to people with disabilities. It may seem simple, but such basic guarantees of ‘free movement, hygiene, and rest’ now exist not just on paper, in internet photos, or in the dreams of people with disabilities in shelters, but in reality,” Stepanets remarked. He emphasized that accessibility is not merely about comfort, but about upholding human rights, particularly crucial during wartime when many are forced to seek shelter away from home.
We spoke with an elderly couple, Lidiia and Mykola, who settled into a furnished room with Fight For Right’s support. The family fled from the village of Tiahynky in the Kherson region due to the war. Lidiia initially moved to Kherson to escape relentless shelling in fall 2023, but Mykola struggled to leave their home: “We had a house, a garden with so many varieties of grapes… We had everything — kittens, chickens, a dog… I kept thinking, how can I just leave everything behind and go?”
A month later, as shelling intensified, Mykola decided to leave. He searched for a place that would accept him and all the cats, including a neighbour’s cat that had recently given birth. Between shellings, he ventured to a hill behind the cultural center to find mobile connection, seeking evacuation from Tiahynka. After a few days, he managed to request evacuation. While returning home, Russian military dropped explosives on him from a drone at his very gate. He regained consciousness in a Kherson hospital. One arm couldn’t be saved, the elbow joint was removed from the other, and his legs were damaged by shrapnel.
Months were spent undergoing surgeries and recovering at various hospitals in Kherson and Mykolaiv. His wife Lidiia remained by his side, even when they were “asked” to leave the hospital with still-healing wounds, throughout rehabilitation, and as Mykola relearned to stand and walk.
Today, volunteers occasionally visit the couple and other shelter residents, helping with basic needs. Thanks to the ramp, Lidiia and Mykola can venture into the city, with Mykola using a wheelchair. However, despite the pain, he makes every effort to move without it, even with his wife’s support.
The war has devastated the lives of almost everyone in the shelter and their relatives, taking everything from them. Yet what struck us was something entirely different: here, so close to the front line, the people we met did not hide in their grief. Our new acquaintances were incredibly bright and responsive, and we felt so comfortable and calm around them that we wanted to embrace them and be uplifted by their kindness.
“Maybe you’d like some cold compote?” a smiling woman offered, and we eagerly accepted the entire tray of refreshing berry drink. With temperatures reaching 39-41 degrees Celsius outside (and that’s in the shade!), we had been struggling with the heat throughout our trip. But in Mykolaiv, it felt most unbearable. The city, filled with the noise of power generators due to widespread multi-hour outages and the hum of car engines, slowly bid us farewell as we continued our journey.
Stop 3. Dnipro – 1
Both our team and our expert, Olena Osadcha, head of the NGO “I know, YOU can,” left the first shelter in Dnipro with positive impressions. Managed by the NGO “Light of Culture,” the shelter made a strong impact. Olena commented, “I came away delighted. It’s evident they’re doing everything possible for the residents. I appreciated their interest in my perspective as a wheelchair user, asking if everything was accessible, what needed changing, and how to make it as comfortable as possible.”
With support from the mini grant, this shelter, housed in a converted abandoned kindergarten, was able to upgrade the entrance area to meet accessibility standards. They also replaced windows and insulated walls adjacent to the renovated entrance.
For over two years, the shelter administration has successfully engaged numerous partners to carry out extensive renovations both inside and outside the facility. Internally, they renovated many rooms, a kitchen, a reading room, and set up a creative workshop. Externally, they installed a playground, a swimming pool, gazebos, and recreation areas complete with a stage and a tent.
Currently, 110 people reside here, including 24 children. While only two residents have disabilities, 20% are elderly. Take Olha, for instance, who moved to the shelter from Lysychansk in the Luhansk region shortly after its establishment. She briefly lived in a rented apartment but returned to the shelter, finding the conditions better. “Everyone here is trying their best. Even with multiple residents in rooms, it’s not an issue; we find common ground with everyone,” Olha shared.
We also spoke with Olena, who relocated here from Stanytsia Luhanska with her two sons, Oleksii and Maksym, following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. They travelled to Pechenihy through an established corridor, from where volunteers transported the family to Dnipro.
Dnipro is currently experiencing enemy shelling, leaving neither Olena nor her sons feeling safe. Oleksii, disabled since childhood, struggles with walking. During air raids, he moves with his family into the corridor behind two walls, often lacking the strength to descend to the basement. Most residents head to the basement each time, as windows have been blown out by explosions more than once.
As we approached the shelter, several explosions were heard. We quickly entered the building. Inside, children were already seated at tables drawing, some were on the steps between the basement and first floor, and adults were seated on chairs along the wall near the stairs. In the absence of a designated bomb shelter — since reaching the nearest one might not be feasible — the basement remains the only option.
After inspecting the shelter, we wished we could stay longer to chat with everyone, watch a movie, or enjoy a play together. However, we were already expected at the next shelter.
Stop 4. Dnipro – 2
At the shelter managed by the NGO “Dzherelo Pidtrymky,” a small, inaccessible bathroom was transformed into a fairly spacious room. They updated the sanitary fixtures, installed handrails near the toilet, replaced wall and floor coverings, and more. However, due to lease agreement constraints, contractors couldn’t arrange the bathroom entrance to meet accessibility standards. Instead of the required 90 cm width, it’s less than 80 cm. The administration began addressing other issues, such as the lack of space under the sink and a non-tilting mirror, shortly after our visit.
Some resources were used to repair the previously non-functional elevator. However, restoring its operation proved challenging; the old elevator frequently breaks down, still making it difficult for residents with disabilities on upper floors to move freely.
We hope future contractors will diligently carry out the administration’s plans in full compliance with state building regulations. There are plans to restore the rehabilitation centre in one part of the building and to equip new rooms.
We acknowledge that in this shelter, as well as in several others established by “Dzherelo Pidtrymky” in Dnipro during the full-scale invasion, much has been done for internally displaced people. With support from international organizations, new washing machines, showers, and updated kitchens were installed. Fight For Right provided residents with 14 heaters and 1 ecoflow, similar to previous shelters.
People are doing their best to make their lives as comfortable as possible. For most, even if the war ended tomorrow, there would be no home to return to, as their homes have been destroyed. For now, this shelter is their home.
Currently, this shelter houses 170 residents, including 15 people with disabilities. Recently, many have arrived from Toretsk in the Donetsk region, where Russian troops are advancing.
On the third floor, we met Zinaiida, a resident helping her cat Musia stay cool by trimming its thick fur. She moved here from Lyman in early May 2022 and retrieved her cat, which had been left with a neighbour, six months later after the town was liberated.
Before the war, Zinaiida worked as a pharmacist in Lyman, maintained her house and garden, and often reminisces about the 64 different flower varieties she grew. She generously shared flowers with schoolchildren for holidays and gave out seedlings to those interested, but never sold them.
Zinaiida is adjusting to life in Dnipro while adding colour to her daily routine: “We thought we were coming for just two months, and now we’ve been here for the third year. We even grow cucumbers here on the third floor, in pots. Some people look for separate apartments and move if possible, as not everyone can adjust to sharing a kitchen with a dozen or more neighbours. Although, in my opinion, the conditions here are excellent. We were provided with dishes, bedding, blankets, sleeping bags, and humanitarian aid… We have everything we need. We also regularly attend various performances, art workshops, and other creative events in the city.”
Zinaiida’s younger son and his wife live across the hall. They had a daughter while in the shelter. This brings us joy. Life goes on despite the war and everything else, and we hope it continues this way in the future…
Final thoughts
Each shelter we visited was unique in its own way. The most valuable aspect is when partners are open to collaboration, receptive to recommendations, and committed to following building standards to ensure convenience for everyone. We were dismayed to hear the words, “We no longer accept people with disabilities.” People with disabilities need support the most during such a difficult time of war. Yet, due to the unwillingness to ensure accessibility in certain buildings, hundreds of people are forced to live under shelling because they have nowhere else to go…
According to data announced at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, as of early summer 2024, 4.9 million people have IDP status, and 300,000 people became disabled between 2022 and 2024. And the war is not over yet. The need for accessible shelters is extremely urgent.
As Yurii Stepanets noted, ensuring barrier-free access and accessibility is crucial because it provides:
– Safety: The absence of obstacles and the presence of appropriate conditions help prevent injuries and ensure quick evacuation if needed.
– Dignity: People with disabilities must have equal access to all services, including sanitary facilities, living rooms, and other common areas, just like other residents.
– Social integration: Creating a barrier-free environment promotes the social integration of people with disabilities and improves their quality of life.
Internally displaced people with disabilities can strengthen any community if they have the opportunity to participate in its life rather than being confined within the walls of shelters or, worse, placed in residential institutions. Therefore, we urge all relevant organizations to contribute to improving accessibility in shelters. At Fight For Right, we are ready to offer expertise, share our experience, and assist with securing financial support if possible. Contact us and send your questions to project manager Karyna Hrytsiuk at k.hrytsiuk@ffr.org.ua or to the organization’s email info@ffr.org.ua
The project “Barrier-free Safety for People with Disabilities” is part of the INKuLtur-Programme implemented by Austausch e.V. together with Eastern Partnership countries, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
This article was written by Iryna Dovhal
Photography by Valeriia Lukash
