Social taxi for children with disabilities launched in Kyiv

Богдан Петришин

A pilot project of a social taxi to transport children with disabilities to rehabilitation centers, medical schools, and special educational institutions has been launched in the capital.

The deputy head of Kyiv City State Administration, Maryna Honda, announced it the authorities' press service reports.

"It's a unique project not only in Kyiv but also in Ukraine. There're no norms or standards for how it works. So the project will run in a pilot mode to understand the needs, the number of hours, to develop quality logistics. We have almost 12,000 of children with disabilities, about 5,000 of them need social taxi services. So far the social taxi will transport 170 children with disabilities, children with motor or mental impairments, i.e. those who cannot travel on public transport. We will sum up the preliminary results in a month and want to include the social taxi service in the city budget for next year and expand the number of children taking part in the project," Honda said.

She added that the project will run until the New Year. Also, the difficulty of implementing is that the market was not ready to offer such a service. The Kyivmedspetstrans municipal organization provides transportation. They converted ambulances specifically for transporting people with disabilities. An accompanying person is with the child during transit. Taxi staff is trained to provide first aid and have a proper set of medications.

Currently, they use 12 cars: 10 sedans and 2 carriages equipped with special securing for wheelchairs. There are also several spare cars that can go on routes.

The service is carried out under international standards and European practices of availability.