Elderly people and less mobile citizens are the first to be hit during a crisis. Oleksandr Vorona, head of the Union of Public Organizations of People with Disabilities of Kyiv, director of the Inclusive Design Center and graduate of Presidents' MBA kmbs, launched several initiatives aimed at providing assistance to those who need it most.

First Steps

A month ago, when quarantine was announced in the country, we began taking the first steps. Communicating with colleagues from other European countries where the crisis had already occurred, we understood what to expect. Conversations with members of public organizations helped outline the circle of problems we faced first.

I contacted the kmbs Alumni Association, and we wrote a post calling for joint efforts. This needed to be done quickly, as more serious problems began within a week — with transportation, supplies, etc.

The first thing we did was spread the call to stay home among vulnerable categories of the population. Our union works with people with disabilities and the elderly, those who have the highest risk of complications in case of coronavirus infection. When restrictions were introduced, they faced difficulties — it was impossible to go anywhere, hard to buy necessities.

For less mobile citizens in Ukraine, unfortunately, not leaving home for a month is a typical situation. The reason is often barriers: for example, the building is not adapted. But occasionally they still need to either go out to buy groceries or ask someone. Under quarantine conditions, people had to limit communication due to the risk of illness, so the problem of providing them with food and other necessities became acute.

Therefore, we launched an initiative: with the help of volunteers, we accumulated data on such people (currently about 1000) and their needs, began collecting funds, purchasing, and delivering groceries. We bring what is really necessary, what the person asked for.

For example, a mother with a disability has children without disabilities. She cannot leave the house, and she cannot let the child out alone. She needs someone to bring medicine, groceries, essentials, diapers, etc. Such people can call us, and we will solve the problem: organize delivery to the address either through volunteers or "Nova Poshta".

Cooperation with Business

We are not trying to help everyone on our own. We pass many initiatives to the city level, as this allows us to cover a much larger number of people. Now many companies, including supermarkets, are cooperating with the state to provide people with necessities. For example, the "ATB" network collected at least 5,885 food packages for Kyiv and 571,572 across Ukraine.

Usually, companies transfer products to territorial centers or regional administrations, which then distribute them among people. I think this is correct — there is a synergy of efforts between the state, the public sector, and business.

Consultative Assistance

Since I have extensive experience working with people with disabilities, I began to help with advice and information to other organizations. Together with volunteers and "ATB", we developed recommendations on the mechanism of customer service in stores during the pandemic. And now social workers who help single incapacitated citizens can shop in the "ATB" network without queuing.

Social workers serve less mobile citizens daily. We recommended that specialists be provided with personal protective equipment, creating conditions for the safe performance of professional duties.

I provided recommendations for local authorities — how social workers should act under current conditions, what antiseptic agents they can use when providing services, how to generally organize work in this area. For example, social workers should have disposable gloves, just like doctors, when they visit a client. And upon entering the premises, they need to remove and dispose of them. Masks should be proper, which really reduce the risk of infection. It was difficult to buy them, so initially, social workers often came in homemade masks.

The mass use of personal protective equipment leads to a new problem — waste disposal. After all, the virus can survive on a mask for quite a long time, and if it is simply thrown in the trash, it will remain a source of infection. Understanding this, I recommended that the Kyiv City State Administration develop a mechanism for the proper disposal of disposable personal protective equipment.

About Work and the Future of Inclusivity

In our Union, people with disabilities work, now everyone continues to work remotely, so nothing has changed for us. We were supposed to conduct a series of seminars for regional administrations on the implementation of inclusive design in urban space. We can now conduct them only online. But there is also good in this situation — involving foreign experts will be much cheaper than paying for their arrival.

This crisis will most likely change us all. Now we will value the ability to move freely and communicate more. I hope that the attitude towards inclusivity will also change. In Ukraine, about 40% of the population are less mobile citizens: either elderly people, people with disabilities, or those who have temporarily lost mobility. They are all consumers of inclusive design. However, this problem has not yet received sufficient attention. And under quarantine conditions, we all became "less mobile citizens" for a while, and as we have already felt, this is a completely different life.

Global business paradigms are changing, improving. For companies that want to work in international markets, the issue of inclusivity is becoming more relevant than ever. To retain the market means to care about inclusivity, about technologies that are comfortable for people, to think about how your product will change their lives. For all of us, the crisis should become a starting point — for rethinking meanings and implementing changes.

Oleksandr Vorona: "We have all temporarily become less mobile — and this experience will change us"