The Bonds Which Help Survive

15 Липня 2022 by Olga Zhurbenko

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If you ask a blind resident of Kharkiv city what their youthfulness and Kharkiv mean to them, most of them will respond it is V.Korolenko Kharkiv School for visually-impaired children. They will say so because this school has opened paths in life for many people who lost their vision partially or completely.

In 1987, the school museum once initiated by Maya Morozova was opened to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the school. Jointly with Maya, the school children had been collecting the school graduates’ memories of different periods in the school’s history. The school survived through the 1917 revolution, the soviet Ukraine development in the then capital Kharkiv, World War II, the post-war reconstruction, and the soviet period of boarding education. The students discovered that the land for the school construction had been allocated thanks to Kharkiv patrons who established the “Board of Guardians” to protect and help blind students.

By the way, the school for blind children was operating at a city church, which held services until 1923. From 1941-1942, a military commandant’s office was located on the school premises, on which a bomb was dropped during a banquet of German officers.

Renovated in 2021 and fitted with modern interactive panels, redecorated and fully-equipped classrooms and a new inclusive playground, the Ukrainian school has stepped into another academic year.

However, February 24 brought a different future to blind children. Hitting nearly the same spot as in 1942, an air bomb damaged the school building and forced the school to move to different and unusual settings out of Ukraine.

But even damaged as it was, in March the school gave shelter to a graduate, Serhii Pozdniakov, who, after the principal’s permission, lived there temporarily to escape the shelling in Saltivka. What Serhii saw when he stepped over the threshold of his native school was painful to his heart. Torn by bomb fragments, the heating network flooded the classrooms, the blast wave crushed all the window panes, and the roof, repaired in 2021, was left without a coating. Most classrooms had damaged furniture, walls and ceilings. Construction waste and remnants of the classroom decoration were scattered everywhere. Serhii decided that shelling and explosions would not prevent him from restoring order in his native school. And so, bit by bit and day after day in April and May, together with Artem, another volunteer, they would be clearing the wreckage caused by the bomb explosion. The boys covered the broken windows with transparent film, boarded up the entrance door, covered the roof with some film too, and took out about 6 tons of construction waste.

And here is the good news! The principal informed that the design and budget documentation for the building renovation was almost approved, except for some details regarding the materials and color of the roof coating, since the school building is an architectural monument. Serhii was carefully following weather forecasts as he was afraid that rain showers could completely destroy the school building which had almost no roof at all.

A team of workers was already there, too, and they kept coming every morning waiting for a command to start working. Still, two weeks passed, but no works began. To Serhii’s question why they were not getting to work, the construction team foreman explained that the company in charge of project documentation for renovating architectural monuments cannot agree the color of the tiles with the architectural authority.

The indignation of the school graduate had no limits. Through Facebook, Serhii disseminated an appeal demanding that restoration works be launched immediately to prevent the destruction of the school building and disruption of the beginning of a new school year.

This is how the indifferent attitude of a graduate from the school was able to break through bureaucratic obstacles, and summer rains no longer threaten the school: the roof has been covered!

When a church is consecrated, a guardian angel arrives there and will not leave the place if no church is there anymore.

The same for Good: sown by the teachers, it binds the graduates together and does not vanish, which saves the school in times of hardship.