Festival of Triumph

Last Thursday the final gala concert of the Colors of Hope Festival, organized by the Kyiv City Center of Youth Social Services, was held in Kyiv. The gala presented the winners of district-level competitions for young Kyivans who have to brave their mental and physical disabilities every day of their lives. While the first few festivals only tried to involve handicapped children in active life, the fourth festival and subsequent ones sought to organize handicapped children for some kind of joint actions, embodied in the motto “Together for Development!” Today, the festival is called upon to give “special” children a chance to see that they too are full-fledged members of our society. Boarding school pupils practiced their numbers under their teachers’ guidance. Children living with their families received assistance from district rehabilitation centers, where experts helped them uncover and develop their talents. The mother of Anastasiya Shelukhina, one of the winners in the singing category, told The Day that parents should not be afraid of showing their kids in public or taking them to rehabilitation centers. Her daughter Anastasiya added, “After eighteen months of classes at the Desnyansky Rehabilitation Center, I began to feel far more confident in life, stopped being afraid of making new acquaintances, and learned more about myself, for example, that I can compose poems and even sing. I’m pretty good at this, and as it turns out, I am no worse than people who don’t need a wheelchair to move about. My life now is interesting and I have a realistic future: I’m going to apply to the Publishing Faculty of Ukraine University.”

This year the jury included a larger number of arts professionals. There were two age categories: 16 and under, and 17 to 28. Winners were chosen in eight categories: photography, visual and applied decorative arts, choral singing, theater, music (instrumental), choreography, poetry and prose. “We evaluate the contestants’ achievements with due account of their physical and mental capacities,” says the jury president, Meritorious Artist of Ukraine Oleh Martsinkivsky. “It is really impressive to see a girl with cerebral palsy performing a dance and then doing the splits. That’s a real accomplishment. Or take a speech-impaired child who sings or a deaf child who recites a poem. Boys whom medicine judged “incapable” of any kind of learning are dancing brilliantly. I am just in raptures over the courage of these kids!”