01.05.2014, Khmelnytskiy
Caritas clients in Khmelnytskiy participated in the exhibition-fair “Handiwork of popular art craftsmen”. Each year on April 25 a tourist season is opened on the central street of the city and this event was conducted within this occasion. Children and youth who are clients of local Caritas presented handmade keychains and pendants for bags at the exhibition. It helped to collect donations for work of social center and their leisure.
During the latest complex of trainings on employment (in particular, “CV as the first step for employment”, “Where can you find a job?”, “How to earn a living for oneself and own family?” and others) local Caritas clients – crisis youth – decided to try collecting money via distribution of own handmade goods. Volunteer Iryna Suprovych agreed to conduct a workshop on making decorative adornments.
“Our children positively perceived new information, got interested in work of an artist and were actively involved in the process of keychains creation. Psychological follow-up was also organized in the process of studying. It was aimed to increase their self-esteem, broaden life prospects, boost group trust and team spirit by means of doing joint activity. That motivated for success and gave 
possibility to reveal own creative skills,” retells Dmytro Kozlovskiy, local coordinator of project “Mobile work with youth”.
26 clients of Caritas Khmelnytskiy took part in the event. They were able to receive not only a theoretic knowledge about the employment procedure, but to get practical experience how to earn money and to be responsible for spending own financial resources. Local
Caritas has been working since 2002 and one of the first fields of its service to neighbors was mobile assistance to ‘street children’. For the last year of project “Mobile work with youth” Caritas Khmelnytskiy has been taken care and is taking care of over 40 families and more than 120 children and youth.
Dmytro Kozlovskiy notes: “The main specialization of work with crisis children and youth, and also needful families grounds on direct work with clients on streets. In the past employees of Caritas Khmelnytskiy looked for children and youth who were forced to stay on streets because of certain reasons, got in touch with them and found out reasons for such street life, provided first medical and social assistance. At the moment everything seems more optimistic: children and youth come to us, they have own place of residence or returned to their families. We teach young parents how to cope with social difficulties and how to plan a family life – these things absolutely change their worldview, manner of behavior and their future.
Moreover, apart from direct work with children, we have enhanced interaction with parents and cooperation with other structures that are linked to problems of children and youth left without care. Also, despite securing basic needs of families and children in crisis, it is important for us to create conditions for their spiritual, creative, psychic and social development.”
As a result of a workshop our clients got not only satisfaction from work, but showed great initiative, were active, made own decisions and new acquaintances. Time they spent helped them to check out their skills, try something new, become more self-confident and what is the most important – to bring down fear before future and responsibility.
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