Dasha Koltsova, an artist and Sasha Koltsova, the leader of the music band Kryhitka will tell us about fairy tales that the children from the Crimea and Donbas tell and why it is difficult to find a new place for the internally displaced persons, and how to help children to love reading, that will help them to cope with aggression
An exhibition What is Your Name? was held in Kyiv in the Mystetsky Arsenal (Art Arsenal) within the multimedia project You are Among Your Friends. Let's Be Together. Many people are tired with the theme of internally displaced persons, tragic stories, and impossibility to make them happy. But with that lazy falling asleep behind the slogans of politicians and information glut it is the easiest to acquire the habit of talking, thinking about the trouble that hit Ukraine. Therefore, there is an advice, appealing for its novelty, - stop sleeping, do not miss out, "come and see". The children's eyes are following the visitors from the brick walls of Mystetsky Arsenal, "connecting" several rooms. What do they want to say? Maybe "We are not the victims but you are"?
A paper house with walls all covered with children's drawings has drawn my attention at the exhibition, among the other things. The author of the idea of creation of this Palace of Non-Children's Fairy Tales is Dasha Koltsova, she is the curator of the entire exhibition. Dasha's eyes are lighting, she wears a beautiful dress, she is ready to explain everyone why we need all these 1,500 drawings of children from all over Ukraine and what exactly they drew, what tales are told. How simple movements turn into the most valuable artifacts of the recent history.
"Draw simple things and sophisticated ones"
"First the children painted houses and buildings, that were familiar to them or not very much," Dasha Koltsova said. "I gave them maximum freedom, because it's the only way they can express all their experience honestly." This is not a children's project, it is for adults, but it was created with the participation of children who saw, coming into contact or felt deeply the war.
The red line between pictures in the Palace is not accidental: we can see at the bottom the drawings of children who still remain in the danger zone, under fire. They are the hardest, they have prolonged stress, the constant fear - they have not started their lives with a new sheet, and the situation of aggression is not stopped.
We can see a significant difference in the drawings of those who had left the war two years ago, and those who have recently. Children tend to recover faster than adults, and two years later, one might say, we can already see happy pictures. With rare memories, which are in the works. For example, the layout of the Palace of Non-Children's Fairy Tales. That is a drawing of a little girl that now lives in Irpin, not far from Kyiv: we can see an ordinary building, a school, toothy, without doors. And then the girl began to draw the red lava around the school. "One day, it rained lava", she explained it that way. The child does not know "how to tell", to interpret things. And in such fine details we can see the real scale of the disaster.
Dasha Koltsova: "When the children were asked why the war had started, they answered simply: it's because people quarrelled. Some of them clarified that some morons came and all had a falling out. But there were no accusations in their responses. Because there are more important things upon which you need to concentrate".
I love the black colour, and do not consider it a funereal or tragic colour. And when I am looking at the black colour in pictures I am not horrified. But when the child starts hysterics because it accidentally dripped red paint on the face and the paint spread out, it has a particular association, it just begins yelling: at this point, you really realize how much the kid had seen.
To my surprise, a toilet bowl often appears in the drawings of the displaced children. I realized it was the focus of acute attention. Because they live in an environment where there is one toilet for five or six families. And it is often busy when it is really needed. An elementary household item becomes almost the main thing in your life. Or the children are painting the stairs. The possibility to escape. Many of them asked whether they have to draw a safe exit in a house? A back door, a secret one. We are talking about the children who have already adapted. In the Palace we have completely different stories: someone moved from the Crimea, where nothing exploded, and someone, on the contrary, from the hell in the East.
The most important thing for us is to show that the children of the internally displaced persons are just kids. No matter who their parents are. These are kids. And they need to be happy, it affects our common future.
We came up with forms of training when a "significant adult", someone who has the authority in the eyes of a child, knew how to talk to children about difficult things. Why is it war? What's going on there now? Why did they leave their home? Why their parents didn't go, grandparents? Why do we live the way we do? What to do when someone is teasing you as a separatist?
Moreover, I asked all the children to tell the story of their lives as a fairy tale. For example, a Crimean boy told a story about a family of bunnies who lived well until the hunters came to them. The bunnies were very scared, they just had to collect their belongings and leave quickly. There was no real war in Crimea, but the child's injury is obvious. Another tale is about the land, which was divided into pieces and how people tied it up. The boy who was watching that was sad and hurt, but then the land was "tied", and now the only thing that the boy is afraid of is a recurrence of decay.
A ten-year-old girl from Luhansk said, "If I had to tell the story of my life, it would be called A Moving.” And she recalled all the places they’ve been to on their way from the East, there were a lot of these stops. And all the children say that it was impossible to take a lot of toys, parents asked them to choose their most favourite ones.
Sasha Koltsova: "That reluctance and inability to analyse the emotion which is born in your thoughts very often lead to aggression. This is an impossibility of reflection, inability to put you in the place of another person. Therefore, the reading is a prerequisite to ensure that the child and the adult are better able to analyse their feelings and behaviour."
Where are you, Missie?
- In Ukraine, since the beginning of the conflict, and the annexation of the Crimea, a million and a half people were forced to leave their usual home, work, friends, and the reality that was comfortable for them. They came to a society that does not really wait for them, do not quite understand them, moreover, the state that didn't have an experience like that, has not established mechanisms to address these problems. In that project, we want to give many people an understanding what is going on here, who are the people with the experience of internal displacement. And we want to push the state to a more dynamic solution of various tasks. When the topic is actively discussed in society, the government must respond. You cannot close your eyes forever; you need to make the inertial system to move.
Many people today made their profession assistance to children and families of the displaced because Ukrainian society is far more effective than the government institutions. An example is Kyiv residential hotel at Kustanaiska, 6. As a result of legal proceedings the people who settled there cannot use water, electricity and heating any more, they are just evicted. What do authorities decide specifically here, in Ukraine? Someone has his own interest, and it turns out that the government contributes to this eviction. What kind of help do we have here? For example, we have an organization Pobratymy (Sworn Brothers), which has developed a training system for ATO veterans psychosocial adaptation, and now they have tangible results. Pobratymy is followed by all the international organizations that deal with this topic. Most often, such projects are carried out without the participation of the state. But salaries and all of the materials are to be covered by private donation.
Does the State have a real strategy for people at least for the next five years? In any direction? If it doesn't, it means that people engaged in government don't have to do that. Yes, all the time we have the "wrong" people in government. But now we are at a turning point.
The fact is that the state does not disappear at some stage of your life - when you cannot get an education on equal terms, or when you have no elementary living conditions. The question is whether the state exists at all, at least in some positive aspect of your life?
Ellie will not return home
- Many participants of this project have not seen war. But the loss of the home is a huge injury. The family suffers a gap, because not all are moving: "My dad decided to stay;" a lot of people left their pets. A five-year child wrote that he wants to take away from the shelter his Bruno. And I suspect that Bruno is not in a shelter.
There is a notion of a "safe place". Only in the conditions of staying in such a place, a person can recover and develop harmoniously. That's what they teach soldiers returning from ATO: to find their safe place. Unfortunately, the children are not taught things like that. Our society separates groups of people with experience of relocation, which contributes to their stigmatization. I visited a modular campus not far from the city of Dnipro. The horror that is the ghetto. Assimilation programs in other countries are more reasonable and humane. People are intentionally accommodated with local residents to make immigrants feel like a member of this society quickly. In Germany, for example, this applies to the Syrians. Here Ukrainians are moving to the Ukrainians, but they are still trying to isolate and come up with their individual conditions. Indicating this way that they are different, victims, strangers. Therefore, You are Among Your Friends. Let's Be Together is a very important slogan and least of all the government officials understand it. It is thanks to them we have such ghetto-towns, completely cut off from the normal life, where people live encapsulated in their traumas.
The strongest concepts in society today are a victim and a hero. Practically there is no journalistic ethics in these areas, and, in general, there is no common conversation. Either poor boys or enemies. This is a catastrophic problem. We can see in the media the National Patriotic pathos or tears of the victims of the war. It is very important to raise these issues carefully and remember critical thinking that you want to bring up.
"But when the child starts hysterics when accidentally drops the red paint on the face and the paint spreads out - it has a particular association, the kid just begins yelling: at this point, you really realise how much the kid had seen".
The internally displaced persons did not add any new problems to society. They just revealed the problems we had before. What exactly doesn't work in the state? It turned out that nothing works. Talking about the problem of immigrants is speculative. It is necessary to say that the state institutions don't work effectively in a number of issues. Any unprotected group of people and a vulnerable man who is in a difficult situation, does not have any guarantees. For example, social adaptation in many countries lasts 45 days. During this period, they give accommodation, find work for a person, draw up documents and help to find a school or kindergarten. The person is not humiliated in endless queues and blurred perspectives. There is no such program in Ukraine. And, you know, any psychologist who regularly travels to the East, has a better idea of the problem, than any official making decisions on adaptation of these people. But the possibility or impossibility to assimilate to a particular family depends on what the child will be called at school, on what will be a discourse in the society.
"Odyssey Of Donbas"
"We have a project here – The Odyssey of Donbas - people from Donetsk and Luhansk regions drew their home towns from memory, as it was before the outbreak of hostilities. Authors of the project Daria Cymbalyuk, Julia Filipieva and Viktor Zasypkin talked to those who stood at the arbitrary topography of the region, thereby creating a unique map of the most important places on the territory of the country. People shared their personal stories, which like streams flowing into the ocean war erupted at the end as very emotional and physical homelessness.
I was in Luhansk twice and would not call it the happiest city. And suddenly here I read, watch the pictures and realize that the people were happy there because it is their home town, this is their safe place. Many people want to come back. They love Donetsk, Luhansk, small towns, which we have called depressive, dirty, mining towns. But it is their home, which was all that is necessary for happiness.
... I go to the pictures of adults, in anticipation of a special trip across the Donbas. My father is from there originally, my relatives have remained there, who are now hiding in basements and seem to be divided forever: Some of them are waiting for Ukraine, the other ones are waiting for Russia.
Here everyone can talk about their home and together with the authors of the project to draw it as a scheme. It looks like a children's game, visualized by Lars von Trier in an unchildish film Dogville. The house that no longer exists to be recreated on concrete with colored crayons. And then to enter a painted room and ...
"There are internally displaced persons who feel guilty about what happened," Dasha Koltsova continues. "Forgive us for the Crimea," some Crimeans say sharing the responsibility. There are others, accusing Ukraine as a state which makes no conscious policy: explanations, running TV programs, Ukrainian projects, history textbooks - anything that would teach people to analyse. But I don't think we need to focus on who is to blame. It has already happened. And when the children are asked why the war started, they answer simply: it's because people quarrelled. Some of them clarified that some morons came and all had a falling out. But there were no accusations in their responses. Because there are more important things upon which you need to concentrate".
The lost skill
You are Among Friends is not just about pictures, videos, films and installations; this is an interactive children's education, the involvement of adults in serious conversations about the main thing. Sasha Koltsova, who is known as the leader of the music band Kryhitka, together with like-minded people and the Foundation of Darina Zholdak held a discussion "Books as a cure for aggression." How to behave in contact with aggression? How it can be stopped by a word? Here you can hear a lot of useful tips from writers and literary critics.
"Writer Marianne Kijanovska believes that the ability of reading and analysing long texts, maintaining the long idea today is a luxury", Sasha says. "In times of fragmentary thinking, short advertising appeals; the ability to focus is an inaccessible skill in most cases". That reluctance and inability to analyse the emotion which is born in your thoughts very often leads to aggression. There is an impossibility of reflection; the inability to put you in the place of another person. Therefore, reading is a prerequisite to ensure that the child and the adult are better able to analyse their feelings and behaviour.
"I was in a modular camp not far from the city of Dnipro. The worst thing about it is that it is a ghetto. We Ukrainians are moving to the Ukrainians, but they are still trying to isolate us and come up with their individual conditions. Indicating this way that they are different, victims, strangers"
In addition, the Foundation of Darina Zholdak has initiated the game workshop for children "How to tame a bookosaur" as part of the project. "For any child who doesn't like to read, the book is a creature that threatens and kills time," Sasha says. "It is very difficult to teach a child to read, forcing him or her to do that." We always say: do not insist, that's a big mistake. There are a lot of good ways to promote reading. For example, the French are beginning to teach children to read together with their parents the instructions, the set of rules in public places, the description of some game. These small steps can gradually accustom reading longer texts. After all, in its first eight months a baby can distinguish between text and image. "
A useful workshop includes four modules. The first is Ukrainian writers. Getting to know them in a playful way, each age group has its tasks. For example, children are encouraged to fill out the Facebook page in the name of well-known writers. The tasks are to comment on the events that occurred at the time when they lived. It can be anything - the invention of the locomotive or a new medicine. The second module is lexical. This is, inter alia, the joint search for errors in advertisements, separation so called surzhik (mixture of Russian and Ukrainian languages) and literary language, writing of terrible and funny ads using a set of words. The third one is the development of creative abilities. This is creative writing, analysis of famous paintings, drawing the first poem using a beriming set and other exciting activities. The fourth one is a civilizational module on how to ask for help, how to refuse politely, how to respect other nationalities and races, and how to save water and nature. The task is to explain that you belong to the world, and the world belongs to you. This module is developed in cooperation with psychologists, conflict resolution experts, experts in law and ecology. All classes are free for children. Because the important things should be available.
"The time when the teacher taught is finished", Sasha Koltsova believes. "Today it is possible to change education for the better; it's inexpensive and it's easy". We have a mobile library Knyzhkobus (which means a Bookbus), which provides an opportunity for everyone to get acquainted with new works of Ukrainian literature, learn amusing verse, perform some exercises on the Ukrainian language: articulation exercises, for the development of memory, as well as to solve crossword puzzles and pass book quests. The project is free: a school makes a request on the site, and motivated people come to teach children to love books in a fun and easy way. Since the advent of the Bookbus in April 2016 we have involved almost six thousand children to such pursuits. Now we have more than a hundred applications in the queue from schools and kindergartens to have visits by such mobile libraries."
The foundation also implements the initiative on collection in the offices and organisations of the books that can make the children in small towns and villages happy.
* The project You are Among Friends. Let's Be Together is implemented by the United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, the film company FILM.UA Group, the media group StarLight Media with the support of the Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)
