Our heroine was born in the small village of Stoianka in Kyiv region. And like all other children, she went to the most ordinary village school at the age of 6. But she didn’t manage to study there for long. In April 1986, when a terrible environmental disaster happened at Chornobyl nuclear power plant, she got the flu and began to lose her eyesight. “The doctors said that the flu had caused complications in the weakest organ, and in my case it was my eyes,” Olesia says. During the first days, no one could even guess that her eyesight was rapidly declining. At that time, there was panic in Ukraine. The Chornobyl disaster forced people to leave the regions close to the catastrophe site, and her family moved to Crimea. It was only there that the family noticed that Olesia was losing her vision. When everyone started shouting “Look, dolphins are there!” and Olesia said she couldn’t see them… And then there were months of treatment, a transition to a new boarding school for children with visual impairments when she would leave home for an entire week and return home for weekends only. These were difficult days of adjustment to independent living, without you dear ones around. Still, Olesia speaks of her school years as very good times in her life. “It was really a school of life,” she says.

At the age of 17, she married a boy from a neighbouring village, and that’s how her life changed direction. She became a housewife. She cleaned the house where she lived with her husband, cooked meals, and did the washing, which required fetching water from a neighbour’s well first, grew vegetables and weeded garden beds on her knees. And it seemed to her that it was exactly a normal life for a person with vision loss. She didn’t even think about anything else, like going to school or working. This is how 10 years passed. Olesia says it was only after meeting with her classmates, when they celebrated a 10-year anniversary of finishing school, that Olesia looked at the world with different eyes. When everyone was telling what they had achieved during the 10 years since high school, our heroine says, “I didn’t know what to talk about…”

That meeting was fateful and changed her life dramatically. She started to attend computer literacy courses and obtained the computer operator profession, entered the university, and started working at a public organization. Her activity was a driver for learning, work, development, and anything she grasped on the fly. And she always met wonderful and wise people on her way who always had something to teach her. That is how Olesia was gradually becoming an active public figure.

The year 2008 brought a dark loss in her life. In her second month of life, Olesia’s daughter Angelinka dies…

“They say time heals! It is not true! It just dulls the pain.” Our heroine hides this page of her life from the world and even now, when she is talking to people, she stops the tears from falling…

Olesia’s work brought her back to life. Of course, it was not without depression and lack of strength, but her inner potential and energy gave her life a new impetus. All she had to do was pull herself together, and then the world started spinning itself. Very quickly Olesia realized that only her activity was the driving force in her life. And it is people like her who keep moving this world around! Of course, such activity and initiative could not go unnoticed. Olesia was nominated for the position of the head of the public organization “The Users of Computer Technologies” at one of the meetings of that organization, and the majority of the organization’s members supported her candidacy. Simultaneously with this event, she became the head of Kyiv branch of the NGO Generation of Successful Action and graduated from the university with a degree in pedagogy and psychology. And this page of her life was not formal – it was a frenzy of activity and recognition.

It was during those times that she became first a coach and later the organizing head of the rehabilitation and sports training camps for people with visual impairments, which were conducted by the Ukrainian Center for Physical Culture and Sports for Persons with Disabilities “Invasport.” These training camps have brought a great meaning in her life. Every year, Olesya involved new specialists in their implementation, added useful courses to the agenda, and gathered people from all over Ukraine. The training camps were very diverse, for young people aged 18 to 25, 18 to 35, and 35+. Therefore, having such a wide audience and programmes, it was necessary to design different ones and adapt them to the needs and capabilities of the participants. Of course, physical and sports rehabilitation is the key to such gatherings, and later various courses were added to support and rehabilitate the individual. Certainly, such activities require knowledge, which she went to obtain at the university in Sumy city, the second university in her life.

In 2013, Olesia became the first president of the All-Ukrainian League of Organizations of Persons with Visual Impairments “Modern Look,” created by like-minded organizations that now continue their activities within this newly created organization. It is incredible but almost simultaneously, she was the president of two public organizations and the head of a division at the third organization. Of course, such a frantic pace could not last long, and Olesia left her leadership positions in other organizations and remained only in the NGO “Modern Look.”

It may seem that her life could be activity-filled, measured and cloudless… but no! When you are a successful and active person, there will definitely be those who want to throw mud at you. And there were quite a few of those in her life. Still, Olesia accepted criticism, made conclusions, continued to study, and implemented new and exciting projects.

In 2014, a series of calendar and literary digest “Twelve Months” for children of primary and secondary school age was published. This collection, printed in Braille, has a brightly coloured cover and embossed contrasting drawings. At the time, this publication was unique because it combined all the components for children with reduced vision. Until that time, the covers of books printed in Braille were in a grey colour, and hardly anyone talked about pictures at all. In 2016, few people supported her idea to publish a tactile colouring book for blind children, but it was the first colouring book of universal design in Ukraine, with the texts written by the wonderful author Serhii Loskot. Later, all-Ukrainian national competitions for the best readers of Braille, a training course for blind massagers, a massage competition, and many-many more events were organized.

The war that started in 2014 changed the world of this woman. During the first days of the Maidan protests, she was torn away from her family, who remained on the right bank of the Dnipro River in Kyiv, while Olesia had to stay on the left bank. In 2015, her husband went to defend Ukraine, and for a year and a half her heart was clutched by fear for his life. He was a wonderful and kind man. He did not die in the war, but the psychological trauma he received on the collision line while executing combat missions led to his death. In such terrible times of life, her family and friends always support her, and she has many of them. Every year of her life has been filled with many events, both terrible and pleasant ones, and when a black event wants to break her, the sun and goodness appear and make her twice as strong.

Kindness is the warm sun at its zenith; it is help at the right moment; it is sincerity, humanity, warmth, and simply a kind word; a smile when you are sad; a helping hand which you can rely on not to fall; it is a cool rain when it’s hot; it is a glass of water when you are thirsty; and it is a piece of bread when you are suffering from hunger…

Kindness is a great power!

February 24, 2022, was another terrible event in her life. When she was far from her native home, when Russian tanks came into her village, when her mother was evacuated, and when she herself helped other people to evacuate to safer places, and when only the opportunity to help someone and the strong shoulder of friends kept her on earth. A whole book could be written about that time, and perhaps she will do it someday.

Rehabilitation of soldiers who lost their eyesight in the war is another page in Olesia’s life. It began in 2019. The first camps were a great experience for her to get actively involved in helping blind guys after the full-scale invasion. Currently, the team of the public organization “Modern Look” is implementing her unique program of rehabilitation and support for the military and veterans with vision loss, helping their family members, organizing mobile social adaptation and rehabilitation camps “Life after War.” Olesia actively supports wives and mothers of veterans with both kind words and good deeds.

Mobile interdisciplinary teams deliver assistance to veterans by visiting their places of residence, as well as ongoing support and on the phone. This whole mechanism is functioning, and Olesia Perepechenko is its engine. She communicates with the guys in the hospitals and on the phone, helps them adapt to the new, unfamiliar, and dark world, teaches them to do things that are ordinary for a person who can see but very difficult for a blind person… And this is extremely important for those who have lost the ability to see. The main goal of all these activities is to renew the guys’ desire to live and be self-reliant and independent. It is necessary to uncover the abilities of a blind person in the modern world, teach them how to use all the assistive devices and gadgets, and help them decide on the future direction in their lives, and only after that get involved with friendly advice, assistance, and engagement in active public position. It is more frightening when you fail to stimulate and motivate a veteran to improve the quality of their life, and it seems that you are in a circle of hopelessness. Nevertheless, our heroine does not give up and does not allow others to do it!

When you are listening to her story, it may seem that it was impossible to survive all those blows of fate and that she could have broken down a long time ago.

Now she’s sitting across from me, and she is giving her charming smile and radiating goodness and happiness, and at that moment you realize what it means – to be a Ukrainian invincible woman!

That is why the incredible Ukrainian poetess Nadiia Krasotkina wrote this biographical poetry about Lesia Perepechenko. The poem is long, but it is light and true, which is why we could not shorten it by even a line.

 

***

It was so cold, and the body ached,

And fever shook the girl, untamed.

 

Olesya no longer wished to play,

Rarely sipped the water, fading away.

 

She wouldn’t open her eyes,

For everything blurred and swirled.

 

But when she finally unveiled those orbs,

All colour and light were wholly hurled.

 

In the whole world, darkness did befall,

The sun disappeared, and a long night ensued.

 

And beyond the window, darkness prevailed,
No blossoms in the garden, all beauty curtailed.

It was so scary and fear everywhere,
Threats loomed large, and anxiety would flare.

 

Something on the path nudged the little one,
Yet all the people were unseen, each one.
The world transformed, but life must move ahead,
She learned and struggled to master she had.

 

And so again she could tread the paths unseen,
And in school, a new chapter, a scholar keen.
The world had changed, but living is an art,
And she learned to navigate, a brave heart.

 

Days and years hurried one by one,

And childhood into youth was gone.

 

The youth enticed the girl with starry fun,

And everything for her was wondrously spun.

 

Rejoicing in the world, she loved with might,

Saw less, yet lived with a radiant light.

 

Like all, she soared to her stars so bright,

Full of lively joy, her spirits in flight.

 

Quickly into marriage she did race,

Because her warmth attracted all the rest.

 

A star herself, radiant in her beauty trace,

Shining brightly in her own grace.

 

She lived as a homemaker, content and gay,

Bright and lively like a spring day.

 

Not a servant, yet not a princess they say…

And suddenly, she began to ponder,

That all her friends had flown up high,

They’d studied and completed education…

While she still hadn’t taken that first try.

 

Weekdays entangled her in their grip,

And in one moment, Olesia woke,

Why had she given herself to the everyday?

To enter university, she quickly went.

 

For smart and clever had she always been,

In Kyiv did she study and later went to Sumy,

She got a splendid education then.

 

And various thoughts in her mind would roam…

Difficult paths the girl has trodden,

Fortune helped her cheer, her guiding rod.

 

And confidence that all resolves,

When bold and strong you are, and you love work,

Then time will carry you to a path of good.

 

That’s how she paved her paths as well as she should.

Not always easy, that journey was for her,

Yet, Lesia gave and gifted, no matter how she felt.

With all around her, he shared warmth and care,

And radiant joy, a gift beyond compare.

 

For when the heart with love does swell,

And kindness in the soul does dwell,

Then all your paths are wonderfully bright,

With you, it’s easy then for all to stride.

 

Such paths Olesya paves with light,

Carrying her love and the sun far and wide.

For every broken fate, she cares,

Doing everything for people’s sake.

 

How else cannot one in this world care,

When so much around sorrow does partake?

And someone has no more a start to light,

But harsh reality to strike…

 

Life, life… you’re a miracle indeed!

With roads countless within you evermore!

You, life, is either easy, lovely, and so light,

Or happiness is gone in a sudden flight.

 

Such is our life, yet people there who are brave and kind,

Their life’s creed: goodness in heart and mind.

 

Love and sincerity, and words are so important,

And care, wisdom, plain humanity abound…

 

Such is Olesia, though sightless she may be,

Her heart can hold an ocean of generosity.

 

To all, she is humane, patient in stride,

And always ready to lend a hand, open wide.

 

Thus, she walks and talks in a gentle stream,

And carrying love, and words, and a soulful gleam.

 

In the whole world, there’s nothing to compare

With a gently spoken word to shows one cares.

 

To the wounded warriors, she gives her hope,

Lifts spirits for the journey’s scope.

 

In someone, she ignites a hopeful gleam,

And heartbeats quicken, like a dream…

 

For someone felt that living must persist,

Not lamenting, time to resist.

 

For what do orders and medals proclaim?

Even if there were hundreds or a mountain-high fame…

 

Here, one must live and oneself to conquer,

Not falter in spirit, nor languor.

 

To struggle, and even to prevail,

And steadfastly toward one’s goal set sail.

And helping all, Olesia lends her hand,

And says her simple words that help to stand.

 

A kind word always can inspire anew,

For in words, wisdom and truth imbue.

 

The best our world has comes from love,

Our aspirations, thoughts, and words thereof.

 

It lives within, in every uttered word,

Love, that’s always active and always live.

 

For those who love it is impossible to betray,

Love lifts them higher, in a special way.

 

Those who love can warm the hearts of all,

With a gentle nature, they heed love’s call.

 

Olesia loves the light that life bestows,

For her soul holds sunshine’s radiant glows.

 

She knows the art of love so deeply sweet,

Making each heart in her presence complete.

 

Her words have the power to warm,

With kindness, a radiant charm.

 

Sending goodness to everyone’s door,

A spark of hope to ignite and restore.

 

And thus to other people, she brings her words of hope,

Something quiet, wise, ancient, and simple.

 

In the tired heart, dreams instantly elope,

And hope blooms like a cherry blossom, so nimble.

 

Prepared by Nadiia Krasotkina

******

“THE INVINCIBLE LADY” is a series of articles about Ukrainian women and girls that motivate, fascinate, and inspire.

This initiative is part of the project “Empowerment of Women and Girls with Disabilities by Strengthening their Involvement and Leadership in Communities,” which is being implemented by the National Assembly of People with Disabilities of Ukraine with the support from the UN Women Ukraine and the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund.

About the UN Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF)

The UN Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund is a unified global financial mechanism designed exclusively to support the participation of women in peace and security building and humanitarian responses. Governed by a range of civil society, governments, and the UN actors, WPHF is a multi-partner trust fund that mobilizes urgently needed funding for local women-led organizations and works together with women on the frontlines to build lasting peace. WPHF has provided funding and supported capacity building for more than 500 local civil society organizations working with the “Women, Peace, and Security” agenda and implementing humanitarian activities in 28 crisis-affected countries.

This publication has been prepared with the financial support from the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), but the views and contents expressed herein do not necessarily represent the official endorsement or recognition of the United Nations.