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.