Children from different regions of Ukraine appealed to Donbas children

22:52 / 21 Dec. 2015 / 1984

Today, December 21, it was opened an exhibition of participants and winners of the contest of children’s drawings “Peace and war through the eyes of Donbas children” (organized by community initiative “Restoring Donbas”) in Kramatorsk Center of extracurricular activities.

Exhibition in Kramatorsk has completed a series of regional exhibitions of the initiative in 2015. During the last three months, residents of Kiev, Zhytomyr, Chernivtsi, Sumy and Kharkiv familiarized with the drawings of Donbas children.

A video message of children from different regions of Ukraine to Donbas children became an important part of the event. Visitors of Kramatorsk exhibition were the first, who saw it. Volunteers of community initiative prepared this appeal on the basis of their previous trips. This video is addressed both to those children, who have remained in ATO area, and those, who have become IDPs. Both to those, who have not experienced military loses, and those, who have lost relatives due to the hostilities.

The video became a response to the children from Zhytomyr, Chernivtsi, Sumy and Kharkiv to appeal Darina (IDP, 7 y.o.) from Donetsk. It was shown during each regional exhibition.

Elena Petryayeva – the head of the community initiative «Restoring Donbas» – opened the event in Donetsk region. During the discussions with the guests of the exhibition, she told about the interest of the people from other regions of Ukraine. She also added that the voice of children is one of the most important factors of settlement of the conflict in the East and Ukrainian union.

“Children (like no one else) strive for peace. I really wanted to display thoughts and ideas of children, their words on the paper in order to make adults to hear them. Children’s diplomacy has to be more effective than the traditional adult diplomacy”- the head of “Restoring Donbas” said.

Such opinion was supported by guest from Kiev, the head of the National Museum of Taras Shevchenko Dmitriy Stus.

Therefore, as a head of the National Museum of Taras Shevchenko, as a head of the Library, I would like to say that we want to be useful to you. Please contact us … I would like to wish all you only one thing – believe in yourself, you can make our world a better place. Do not repeat our mistakes, “- Stus stated during his speech.

In addition, Andrei Malyutin and Sofia Sbitneva – the winners of the contest – visited the exhibition. Sofia said that she started to paint due to the war. Her works reflected both the memories of peaceful Donbas, hostilities and children’s hope for peace.

Pupils of Kramatorsk Center have prepared a concert for all the participants.

At the end of the opening ceremony, Elena Petryayeva – the head of community initiative «Restoring Donbas» thanked all the representatives of local and regional authorities and organizations, which have made it possible to carry out the exhibition in Kramatorsk.

In particular, Certificate of Appreciation was granted to Nadezhda Oksemchuk – the Head of the Department of Education and Science of Donetsk Regional military civil administration, Evgeny Sidorov – the head of Kramatorsk City Department of Education, Galina Demchenko – the head of the Children’s Health Center “Emerald City”, Oksana Yevdokimova –  the head of the Minor Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Sergey Marugin – The head the Center of extracurricular activities in Kramatorsk, and others.

At the same time, Nadezhda Oksemchuk – the representative of Donetsk Regional military civil administration – noted that the final point of the exhibition, organized by “Restoring Donbas”, should be the Verkhovna Rada. Politicians have to see these pictures in order to understand that children need peace.

Let us remind that children’s drawing contest “Peace and war through the eyes of Donbas children” was announced on May 9, 2015.  By August 25 – the last day of the submitting the drawings –community initiative «Restoring Donbas» has received more than 300 works from children, who are living in Donbas, and from children-IDPs.

The jury included both the representatives of community initiative “Restoring Donbas” and invited guests. During the discussion of competitive works, members of the commission took into account both the artistic value of the drawings, their semantic content and emotional burden.

By the end of the competition, community initiative has prepared a collection of pictures of participants with their letters, comments of social network users, the explanation of the psychologist.

The restoring-donbass.com website - is an interactive platform, which was created by the "Restoring Donbas" community initiative of Oleksandr Klymenko. The latest news, blogs and analysis, background information and useful ads for IDPs and Donbas residents are available on the website.