Six people with visual impairments mastered the specialty "Fundamentals of Therapeutic and Health Massage"

As part of the project "Supporting the Social and Financial Recovery of War-Affected Communities in the Poltava Region," the training of a group consisting of those who have partially or completely lost their sight was completed.

"Due to vision problems, I can no longer work as a salesperson, so I was looking for opportunities to retrain. These courses were both interesting and useful for my family that I have such skills. But I plan to continue developing and working for myself so that in the future I can open my own office," said graduate Alla.

The idea of ​​such a direction of training was voiced by Maryna Babets, the chairwoman of the board of the Poltava regional organization of the Ukrainian Society of the Blind, during a joint meeting before the start of the project with representatives of veteran organizations and communities of people with disabilities.

Eventually, we managed to organize training for six volunteers. Among them was Igor, who completely lost his sight last year:

"I was in rehabilitation and took very small introductory courses there. And the teacher said that I was pretty good at it. I came back and told the chairman of the board about the idea. Because I couldn't afford to pay for the courses financially. And I was thinking about what to do. It's just doing something with my hands."

Currently, graduates are looking for their first clients to gain experience and are interested in vacancies from employers.

The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Light of Hope NGO in partnership with JERU (Joint Emergency Response in Ukraine of international NGOs Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide).