This Saturday in Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine), the team of the non-governmental organization Disability Rights International Ukraine presented the results of the project "VOICES: Women, Children, and Disability." The intimate presentation and opening of the exhibition brought together the project participants, the team that worked on it, and experts in the field (and with lived experiences) of protecting the rights of people with disabilities. 

VOICES: Women, Children, and Disability is a first-person reflection project dedicated to the diverse experiences of women. It consists of a catalog and exhibition canvases featuring art portraits of 12 women from different parts of Ukraine who have experience with motherhood and disability, either their own or that of their children. You can view the virtual version of the catalog at the link. 

"There is still a stereotype in society that 'sick' children are born mainly in dysfunctional families, especially to mothers like that. Doctors with 'good intentions' convince women that 'such' children should be left in specialised institutions and that they should give birth to 'healthy' children," says Halyna Kurylo, author of the project and head of Disability Rights International Ukraine. "Families of children with disabilities are often left alone to face these  new challenges, and they are also left in an informational vacuum. The medical model sees disability as an illness and cultivates a sense of guilt in women, which pushes them to seek endless rehabilitation and ways to bring their child back to "normality." This creates a constant feeling of being a ‘bad mother’. A shift to a rights-based approach to disability, which puts the person and their rights at the centre, is the only way to ensure a truly democratic society. One that is comfortable and safe for each and everyone.” 

As part of the project the women were asked how their lives had changed after the birth of their children, what their typical day looked like, what their dreams were, what support meant to them, and what they felt was missing. They also talked about the barriers they faced and how they perceived disability. The interviews focused on women's own experiences, although most of the women inevitably mentioned their children first when asked about themselves.

We used the transcriptions of the interviews and made a montage of the text without rewriting the story to preserve the authentic voice of each woman. Voices are presented as a mosaic of quotes. In the illustrations, we used a negative collage technique to express the following motifs:

• every woman can find herself in the shoes of the heroins;
• under peer pressure, women risk reducing their identity to the role of a “caregiver”
• the experience of women who have disabilities themselves and/or are raising a child with a disability is still invisible to both society and the state.

This united fabric of experience shows the invisible daily struggle that women have for the right to their own time, their own space, their own voice. How they reclaim themselves. It also highlights the fact that disability is not inherent to a person, but arises on the verge of their contact with the environment.

The catalog "VOICES: Women, Children, and Disability" was created by Disability Rights International Ukraine (DRI Ukraine) thanks to the "Support to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)" program in Ukraine with financial support from the British Embassy. The presentation of the catalogue and exhibition were made possible thanks to the financial support of art photographer Alina Araslanova and the LIK gallery (Vienna, Austria), as well as the socially responsible business, the bookshop and café Alternatyva (Vorokhta, Ukraine).

Photo: Svitlana Churubrova

For reference:

Disability Rights International Ukraine (DRI Ukraine) is a non-governmental organization and local partner of the international human rights organization Disability Rights International (USA), founded by women with disabilities, women raising children with disabilities, former residents of institutions, and social work professionals. The core of the organization's activities in Ukraine is the protection of the rights of people with disabilities, in particular the right to full integration into the community. 

"Voices: Women, Children, and Disability"

Project idea and management: Halyna Kurylo

Interviewers: Olena Koval, Halyna Kurylo, Yaroslava Ilchenko

Editing: Iryna Osadchuk

Communication support: Anastasia Obertas

Computer layout and design: Linza Agency 

Graphic designer: Olena Zenchenko