The unique project “Family as a Family” has launched in Russia, a photo stories and interviews of families in which the wife or husband (or both at once) have a disability.
It was created by Aleksey Gorshenin, a photographer and designer with a disability and a community of professionals with disabilities, an inclusive project Everland.
The unique project’s main task is to give hope, destroy the stereotype that people with disabilities are alone, that no one can love them, and not start a family.
According to Elena Martynova, co-founder of Everland, this myth is quite persistent in our society. But it is not true – people with disabilities can be happy, and disability itself should not be equal to loneliness.
“Everland has a rather pragmatic approach to this initiative – we see from the experience of our community that his own family for a person with a disability becomes a fulcrum to go forward, work, develop professionally, and improve living conditions. No amount of public support can replace personal motivation to develop and go beyond disability. It is simply impossible. And the family can become that incentive. But often, people with disabilities do not believe in the possibility of starting a family or do not know where to start. Sometimes, the problem is the inability to hear another person and negotiate. And we wanted to set an example, to show that all “but” and “no” often exist in the head, they can be overcome. ”
Aleksey Gorshenin, the author of the project’s photographs, says the same: “We would also like to support parents who are worried about their teenage children’s adult life with disabilities with our initiative – our heroes prove that disability is not a reason for loneliness.”
Among the participants in the project are dancer Evgeny Smirnov, who lost his leg in an accident, journalist Andrei Zaitsev, who has cerebral palsy, deaf-blind actress and writer Irina Povolotskaya, a designer with hearing disabilities Maria Gudova and other very different people who may not hear or see, use a wheelchair, or use prostheses.
Contribution to the project – conducting photo sessions, creating interviews with characters, as well as materials about the style and appearance of people with physical disabilities, talks with a psychologist and parents of children with disabilities, mothers with many children in wheelchairs, content packaging – were made as ordinary people, donors crowdfunding platform Planeta.ru, and the company.
Twenty-nine people with disabilities participated in preparing the special project – a photographer, content specialists, designers and web developers, a lawyer, a tester, and others. For some of them, this was their first experience working in a team, for others – their first experience in general. Interaction and work give not only money but also self-confidence, an understanding that much is possible, despite the diagnosis.
In addition to launching a website with photo stories, the creators also plan to hold a series of exhibitions and various events on relationships and family creation for people with disabilities in Moscow, and possibly in other cities.
If you are interested in posting photo stories in your city, please contact the organizers by mail pressa@evland.ru or s.pavlikova@evland.ru.
