Chernihiv Region Charity
“Aratta”

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June 15, 2011.
Theatre studio “Dyvosad”

Theatrical Studio was created on the basis of Chernihiv region charity “Aratta” in 2006. Theatrical Studio resumed its existence with new members thanks to the initiative of the director of Chernihiv region charity “Aratta” Filatovа Victoria and efforts of its new creative director Irina Pesnya.

“Dyvosad” is an integration theatre, where actors are special people. They are special because they have different degrees of disability. These people are able to create and their creative work is especially interesting because they are “not like others”. It is well-known that there are no disabled people in art. These actors show the duality of acting more than others. The acting raises a person very high but not higher than his human lot.

“I am sitting in the darkness /and it is not worse than the darkness inside/”, - Josef Brodsky wrote about himself. But our actors can say this about themselves as well.

Our society sees people with limited abilities as “social consumers”, “ill people”. But they don’t need pity; they need a possibility to live a full and eventful life: have a normal job, do something they love, create. Theatrical Studio “Dyvosad” is not just a theater for rehabilitation of handicapped people, but also a theater for rehabilitation of our limited thinking.

The doors of our theatre are open for everyone: for those having disability and for healthy people as well. There are parents of these children and people with sympathetic hearts among our volunteers.

Traditionally, Theatrical Studio “Dyvosad” takes part in the International Festival of “Wonderful Theatres “ in Tchev, Poland. New members of drama group gladly accepted the invitation of the Festival organizers to represent Ukraine and show a new performance “Little prince” by Saint-Exupéry.

But we met big difficulties while collecting money for transport expenses. We had to find money for the trip ourselves, visit different organizations and ask for help.

Transport company “Kamino” in the person of Kovhan Alexander agreed to take our drama group to Poland on credit. We signed a letter of commitment: now our debt is 18000 hrn. Of course it was risky but worth doing. You should have seen the eyes of our children when they saw the results of their work – general recognition and public love, high jury appraisal and unexpected, breathtaking final – the highest Festival award “Grand Prix”.

We are very grateful to those few organizations and kind people who agreed to help us:

Kovalenko O.V. – head of “Nasha bulochka” enterprise

Ivanov K.V. – president of Chernihiv Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Efimenko Y.V. – entrepreneur

Dorozhkina I.V. – head of Chernihiv region “Union of Ukrainian Women”

Dzhola E.I. – president of the charity fund “Dzherela dobra”

Symonov A.M. – general director of LLC “Vena” enterprise

Markus S.I. – head of “BYUS-garantia” enterprise

Anishchenko R.N. – head of the advertising company PE “Eclipse”

Poleshko V.M. – head of the PE Termolex

Our actors:

Shkolnaya Valeria, 7 years old. Diagnosis - spinal amyotrophy, our doctors didn’t expect her to live more than 3 years with such a rare disease.

Sychova Karina, 10 years old. Diagnosis - moderately severe cerebral palsy. She dreams to learn how to walk on her own as soon as possible.

Polosmak Oleg, 17 years. Has childhood disability – spine disease, student of Chernihiv Teachers’ Training University, History and Philosophy department.

Vasyuk Ivan, 22 years old. Has childhood disability – locomotive dysfunction. And his father Vasyuk Petr - disabled person of group II (sight).

Mentey Julia, 26 years old. Spine damage as a result of a car accident.

Kuryat Yuri, 26 years old. Diagnosis - multiple sclerosis. Thanks to “Dyvosad” drama group a beautiful couple appeared – Yuri and Julia

Komzyol Petr, 25 years old. Diagnosis - Down syndrome. During the first year of our group’s existence he played two main roles.

Solokha Alla, 34 years old. Diagnosis – spine disease.

Yermachenkov Vladislav, 35 years old. Childhood disability – cerebral palsy.

Alla and Vlad created one more happy couple in our group.

Our drama group volunteers

Irina Pesnya, Victoria Sychova, Alla Dudchenko, Valya Shkolnaya, Sergey Indach

(Karina’s mother) (Petya’s mother) (Valeria’s mother)

Nastya Snetsar, 11 years old

Marina Shturmarevich, 16 years old

Grand-Prix award on “Wonderful Theatres “ Festival  Tchev, Poland. June, 9, 2011

Our account details: “Dyvosad”, account 26001000022415 in MFPAT “Ukrsotsbank”, MFO 300023, 17, Gorkiy Street.

Contact numbers: 0933404354 (Ira), 0634759572 (Vika), 0674608209 (Victoria Alekseevna)