This year, the Medical and Social Rehabilitation Center for Children with Special Needs "Way of Life" is 19 years old. These years for the wards and staff of the Center were full of many events, where successes and achievements, problems and failures were intertwined.
A little bit of history. It all started on October 3, 1999, when the Rehabilitation Center for Children with Disabilities was opened in Uzhgorod.
Oleg Kirilenko, doctor and person committed to his work and children, has remained its director since the very first day. At the beginning of its activities, the primary task of the Center was to provide comprehensive assistance to children with special needs, to give them the opportunity to gradually adapt to the society.
It was a difficult path. The institution’s staff were looking for children, who needed help, convincing their parents in the necessity to attend the Center. Strangely enough, some families refused to do it.
Time was moving on. In spite of political instability and economic turmoil, the "Way of Life" continued to grow. While in 1999 there were only seven children aged 3 to 9 years, today they are taking care of more than three hundred people with physical and intellectual disabilities – from birth day to 35 and older.
All this time, there have been people and organizations that helped the institution to solve problems, financial difficulties.
The Center became a member of the international organization SOFT (Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine), which provides for the constant exchange of best practices in the provision of rehabilitation services for children with special needs, and several high-level international conferences have been held at the Center. Several years ago, the Early Intervention Program was launched, as well as post-school adaptation and social and labor rehabilitation of young people with intellectual and physical disabilities.
During this time, the institution has participated in several joint projects with Dutch, American, Canadian and other international organizations, and improved its working methods for the sole purpose of helping special children and young people to feel fit, loved, free, in short, "LIKE EVERYONE ELSE". This is the motto of the annual march of the children and staff of the "Way of Life" on the streets of Uzhgorod which reminds its residents that there are people living next to us, who need special attention and care, not only from the government, but also from every one of us.
Some episodes of the life of the institution at different times are in the photos.
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