Goodness on loop: how blind people learn new professions in Ukraine

Illustration dribbble.com

Viktoriia Hubareva

32-year-old Lviv woman Kateryna is blind. She is a masseuse by profession. For some time she worked by training in a clinic. But when she was laid off because of the vacancy being closed, it was hard to find a job. For some time after losing her job, Katia had worked with old clients, but with the beginning of quarantine, even this opportunity to earn money dropped off. "It means close contact with people, and I'm scared to get infected," she says. The only way out was to change the profession. And then she learned about registration for IusITNetwork courses, where people with disabilities are taught a new profession: telephone sales.

"I'm losing nothing, so I tried," Katia says. Now she is already at the last step of her studies. In a few days, she'll have a "graduation": a competition among students, where they'll call actual clients from companies' partners. The most successful student will receive a cash prize and the opportunity to get a job freelance or in a partner company. So, over the past 2 weeks, the course organizers have already helped three students find jobs, Mykola Lahotskyi, a Lviv resident, and project curator, says.

Mykola Lahotskyi

Kateryna got into the second round of students. We learned about her from 25-year-old Denys Lutsenko from Kharkiv, a teacher, and the project's sponsor. We asked him personally about why he engaged in this venture besides his primary job and agreed not only to teach but also to subsidize the project.