Disability Center has been opened in Perm.
Photo: Sarah Zakharova-Güttler The project has been implemented by the “ArsVivendi” non-commercial organization for social support for the disabled people and using the unique experience gained in Duisburg (Germany), the twinned city of Perm.
The disability workshop in Duisburg at present employs over 1200 people. The center in Perm has less, but the organizers are doing their best to increase the number of participants.
The special center located at 28, Lodygina Street in Perm provides the disabled with a range of jobs and opportunity to develop useful life skills. The project has been initiated and organized by Sarah Zakharova-Güttler, who is now living and working in Perm. The administration of Perm city has assisted in finding the building for the center, and Perm volunteers have helped with the necessary repairs.
The center has two main workshops – carpentry and sowing. The participants of the project - the disabled people -have started making high quality gifts and souvenirs which were specially designed for this production.
The ArsVivendi project is aimed at providing opportunities for holistic development of the disabled – in addition to the job skills they will also obtain skills important for their everyday life. The center has special lounge rooms with beds, a kitchen and a spacious dining room. Alongside with activities in the workshop the disabled can learn to cook food and do the household jobs.
“Implementation of this project is of a great value as we are making life accessible to the disabled. This workshop is not meant to be a place for compassion and pity, but a place for new chances and opportunities”, noted Sarah Zakharova-Güttler.
During the initial stage in the center’s activities the volunteers will train the disabled in the necessary production skills, which will help bring the quality of production up to the competitive level. The Center’s products will sell in a special retail shop analogous to the one in Duisburg which will be located in the center of Perm. .
“It is fundamentally important that the public buys things not because they feel pity for those who made them, but because the products are of adequate quality”, says Sarah Zakharova-Güttler.
