Three thousand kilometers in thirty-three days

The initiative group “I See! I Can! I Will!” has lately completed a bicycle ride across Ukraine which involved visually-impaired people and lasted 33 days. The event’s participants, coming from various cities of Ukraine, covered 3,000 kilometers in a month. The riders’ composition changed at every stop, but in general, there were about 30 of them.

“There were both totally and partially blind participants in our ride. They are not professional athletes. For many people, it was their first ride of this length. Our objectives were to show that visually-impaired people can take part in sports too, and to raise funds for a sensotheque, an inclusive space which will be equipped with special equipment allowing blind people to navigate that space. This library is in working condition already, but it is in need of repair. We accept funds through donation boxes, while our website has details of the account where one can transfer money as well,” the ride’s co-coordinator, cyclist Taras Luchka told us.

We have learned from the organizers that professional athletes they met in the village of Lypivtsi, Vinnytsia oblast, have proposed to hold a joint event, to be called “Peaceful Donetsk.” They plan to hold this bicycle ride along the route Lviv-Donetsk when the war is over. A declaration to that effect bears signatures of prospective participants and Lviv’s mayor. The cyclists kept a kind of video diary throughout their 33-day-long journey. The organizers told us they would present a documentary created from this footage in September.