New Hope for Ukraine's Disabled Workers
By Samuel Grumiau, ILO
December 3 is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. In Ukraine, which has one of the highest disability rates in Europe, it will also be the second anniversary of the vocational training centre for disabled workers in Lutizh, near Kiev. One of the most modern centres in Europe, it is giving new hope to hundreds of Ukrainian families. The ILO played an important role in its creation.
According to ILO estimates, 14 per cent of the Ukrainian population, or about 8 million people, are disabled (2.6 millions according to official estimations). This is almost twice the average for the industrialized countries. There are several reasons for the high figures. Some of Ukraine's disabled people are veterans of the Afghanistan war, while others are victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster or of the very frequent accidents in the mines of the Donbass. As elsewhere, disabled workers have difficulty in finding a job in Ukraine, where poverty keeps on growing. Vocational training adapted to their disabilities was, until recently, very scarce. So they were an additional burden to families who already have trouble making ends meet.
New training center
But the prospects for them have brightened since the All-Ukrainian Centre for the Vocat ional Rehabilitation of the Disabled was set up in Lutizh, in the Vishgorod region some 40 km from the capital, Kiev. Located in the middle of a wood, the centre can accommodate 130 physically handicapped people at a time. Various skills are taught there: typing, social work, bee-keeping, information technology (IT) and so on. The courses, which last between two months (crafts) and five and half months (IT) are entirely free of charge for the disabled people. Their board, lodging and medical expenses are covered by the centre, which has not skimped on the quality: spotless, comfortable rooms, very modern medical equipment and all kinds of special provisions to make life easier for the trainees (special toilets, ramps in all the corridors, covered pathways to facilitate movement between the buildings, even in winter). The centre also houses a swimming pool with a special lift, to ensure access for people with all types of disablement.
ILO contributions
The Ukranian government is also bearing the current running costs. The ILO made a substantial contribution by equipping two IT classrooms and buying three minibuses adapted to transport disabled people, as well as a car. Another important source of funds came from an ILO-UNDP project (United Nations Development Programme) financed by the Swiss Government, which has developed modular programmes for vocational training. The ILO also facilitated the creation of the Ukrainian centre by financing various feasibility studies and several trips by the centre's promoters to Linz, in Austria, which has long been the home of a very effective vocational retraining centre. In fact, twenty or so trainers now employed in Lutizh were themselves trained in Linz, thanks in part to support by the ILO and by the Austrian Government. They are now passing on their know-how to other, less modern training centres throughout Ukraine. "There are several dozen of these across the country," explains Dr. Mycola Avramenko, the Director of the Lutizh centre. "But their working methods and functioning are by no means identical, as they are run by different types of organization (NGOs, regional government etc.) The idea is to organize them into a network." In this way, Lutizh is gradually becoming a benchmark for Ukrainian health professionals who specialize in assistance to the disabled.
Finding a job
A priority for the Lutizh centre is to help disabled people find a job at the end of their training. "We work together with the government's placement services for the unemployed, but also directly with the employers," Dr. Avramenko emphasizes. "If, for instance, an ex-miner has undergone an amputation, and we give him training in IT, we may contact his former employer and negotiate an appropriate job for him. But more generally, finding jobs for our trainees is the task of the regional employment services, who are under an obligation to find a future employer for a disabled person who is sent to us by the corresponding regional administration." This task is made a little easier by legislation that gives a tax reduction to employers who take on disabled workers.
The Litizh centre certainly does not think that disabled workers should have everything handed to them on a plate. They are given a big helping hand, but they also have to do their bit to make a success of their new working life. There is a need to change attitudes inherited from the Soviet days, when the State gave money and nothing else. "Some people might have been able to play on the sympathies of the Ukrainian people and expect the State to do everything for them," Dr. Avramenko points out. "We tell them the opposite: by giving them this training, the State is giving them a chance. It's up to them to seize it. We want them to see themselves not as beggars but as contributors to society." For those trainees who want to go on to a more advanced level, the centre has built up contacts with adult education colleges that are able to accept them. A whole network of relationships has been developed to ensure a better future for disabled people in Ukraine. "This is an excellent example of cooperation between the ILO, the government, the social partners and the NGOs that specialize in assisting disabled people," notes Vasyl Kostrytsya, the ILO's national correspondent in Ukraine and a moving force behind the creation of the centre. Incidentally, Ukraine is in the process of ratifying ILO Convention 159 on the vocational rehabilitation and employment of disabled persons.
Highly motivated staff
Altogether, 200 workers keep the Lutizh centre running smoothly. Thirty per cent of these are educators. The others are therapists, orderlies, cooks and so on. "The great majority of them are very enthusiastic and highly motivated," Dr. Avramenko says. "Some of them even come in at the weekend, because they feel so involved in the residents' training." One of the problems facing the centre is that it is located outside Kiev, where most of the scientific institutions are based, and it cannot be reached by public transport. It therefore has difficulty in attracting specialists from the capital. The minibuses purchased by the ILO solve this problem by providing transport for these highly qualified staffers. The vehicles also take the trainees to Kiev for medical consultations or other visits, or bring them to rail stations or airports if they have come from far away.
Given the number of disabled people in Ukraine, there has to be a way of selecting the lucky ones who will be admitted to the centre. The choice is made by the various regional administrations, taking particular account of the transport possibilities for these people, their type of disability and their chances of finding employment after one or other kind of training. As in other centres of this type elsewhere, the great majority of the trainees in Lutizh are below age 40. "We would also like to train older disabled people," Dr. Avramenko states, "but they often lack the motivation, mainly because they' ll soon be getting their pensions. The younger people are more ambitious about improving their living standards and becoming financially independent." There is plenty of socializing, too. Apart from sports, the centre organizes different cultural activities at the weekend - singing, plays, guest artistes, musical evenings and trips to Kiev. Some of the walls at the centre are covered with posters highlighting the ILO's core standards, as well as its programme for the elimination of child labour, IPEC.
Future Dreams
In future, the centre would like to organize student exchanges with its counterpart in Linz, which continues to provide advice. The energetic Dr. Avramenko also wants to equip his centre to give vocational training to blind people. To achieve this, he has to find the money to buy materials in Braille. Another of his plans is to analyse labour market trends, so as to provide better-targeted training. "I also dream of developing complete sports facilities for disabled people. We already have a swimming pool and a fitness centre and we're surrounded by forest. Now, I want to get together some funds to create sports fields and tennis courts. Who knows, maybe some day one of our residents will take part in the Paralympics. That would be a great encouragement for the others."
Meanwhile, sewing and car mechanics will soon be added to the courses available, as will sessions on how to run a small business, for those who want to be self-employed. More rays of hope for thousands of disabled Ukrainians.
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