Halyna Dzhala: “All Things are Possible with God!”

4 Грудня 2023 by Olga Zhurbenko

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Our heroine was born in Lviv, or, as they say, the cultural and artistic capital of Ukraine, in a large family raising four girls. Halyna’s parents had disabilities. It is not surprising that two girls in the family inherited visual impairments, or more exactly, that disability. Halyna recalls her childhood with a lot of thoughtfulness. Those times were very difficult and poor, but her parents tried to provide their daughters with everything they needed. She recalls that as a child, she often went for a walk with her father and all her sisters to the forest, where it was noisy and fun. With such a team of sisters, you always had someone to play with. When talking to us, our heroine does not hesitate to say that she was an insecure, vulnerable, and closed child. “Although there were many of us in the family, my parents did not single out anyone and treated everyone equally.” Halyna thinks that her mother was overprotective to her. As a result, she did not learn to take responsibility for her life and is still learning to do so. Having low vision, she also worried about how she would write and read when she went to school. Her school years were filled with hobby clubs and creativity: singing, acting, organizing and holding holidays, playing the violin, and many other creative activities. As a teenager, she sang in a school ensemble and a church choir, where she was nicknamed “Nightingale” for her sonorous and melodious voice.

“It was a process of adaptation and inclusion, because, first, I had to write texts for myself in Braille and, singing, to peek into those huge Talmuds. Secondly, I had not to feel ashamed to do so. The music school, where I learned to play the violin, became a similar space for getting used to society.” For a visually impaired person, the violin is a difficult instrument. While playing in the orchestra, the children would part to let her see the notes. However, the girl gratefully explained that she did not need to do this because she had already learned them by heart and would not be able to see them from that distance anyway.

A chance helped her choose her future profession, although she doesn’t believe in accidents. Halyna and her friends applied to the Chernivtsi Medical College to study Nursing and Massage Therapy, which played an important role in her life. She moved to a new city to study, thus moving out of her mother’s care and learning to take responsibility for her life by herself. Now she is successful in her profession and believes that God has given her the talent to heal with touch and the qualities to work with other people.

Everything seemed to be going well and life was going its own way, but suddenly her father fell ill. Since childhood, Halyna had been very attached to him and remembered him as a kind and intelligent man with practical wisdom. Her father was much older than her mother, so Halyna subconsciously understood that he would be gone one day. Every time she was leaving home, she said goodbye as if forever, because she didn’t know whether she would see him again… When her father was bedridden because of his illness, she would come to him, take his hand, and hug him. She wanted him to cuddle her like in the childhood. Although he himself was heartbroken, he comforted and supported his daughter. Later, her Dad died. Recalling that period of his life, we touched a deep wound of grief and sadness for her father. A lot of time passed, but tears rolled down Halyna’s eyes. It always hurts when a dear one leaves you. At that time, her faith helped her a lot. She realized that the body had died, but the soul and love remained with her. It seemed he was still alive, and he was somewhere nearby, but she just couldn’t see him…

“It was hard to find a job after I got my degree. There were a lot of massagers in those days, and a specialist without work experience is not always welcome.” The Lviv Regional Organization of the Ukrainian Society of the Blind helped Halyna in that situation to find a job in the intensive care unit of a hospital. At the time, she did not believe in her abilities and was frightened, but her father supported her and gave her confidence, convincing her to try it and start gaining experience. To have a vision impairment and work in an intensive care unit seemed unrealistic at first. But she stepped out. She left her comfort zone. In some cases, she asked for help to find a patient, medicines, items, etc. Over time, she learned to do everything herself, memorized, studied, and developed. Halyna started working at this hospital in 2009 and has been there ever since. She has recently completed a refresher course to become a physical therapist and occupational therapist assistant and she plans to continue self-development in this field.

The other side of Halyna’s personality is the creative nature, which has been accompanying her all her life. After college, she was invited to sing in the Strumochok [“Brooklet”] ensemble, under the umbrella of Lviv Society for the Blind. Life has always been rich in good people, and the director of the ensemble, a professional personality, is one of them. It is a pleasure to learn from her. Her creativity inspires. Since then, Halyna has realized that you should enjoy what you do and not be afraid to make mistakes. She loves the stage, performs a lot, and takes part in interesting concert projects, such as “Life has opened up.”

With a smile, she recalls her trips to sports camps. At first, she went there as a participant, gaining useful experience, and later realized that she was ready to work as a coach and share her knowledge. She is sincerely grateful to Olesia Perepechenko, head of the training camp project, for her trust and the opportunity to realize herself. The rehabilitation has gradually developed her communication skills, faith in herself, and revealed her talents even more. She regrets that many people do not have such cool communities where they can express themselves.

The war caught her just in the middle of such a rehabilitation camp. The night before, the camp management announced that there would most likely be a full-scale invasion and we had to think about what to do… In the morning, it was just a shock. The war had started. Almost all regional centres of Ukraine were bombed. My mind refused to realize it, and I did not want to believe it until the last moment. “It might seem we are in control of everything, but it is not true, and we do not control anything,” Halyna adds. Life was turned upside down and no one realized the scale of the war. What to do? Where to go? Where is it safe? The people I knew told me to run away, to go abroad. Many people evacuated to Lviv and thought that it was a safe place for them, and so it was safe for her as well. But how can you leave your home behind and go noone knows where when your patients need you, and you have your friends and family nearby, and you can always contribute to helping others. The first several days, she virtually had a voidness in her thoughts and actions, a kind of misunderstanding of the situation. She says that once again, a higher power intervened in the events of her life and directed her to the right path at that time.  Halyna started helping people with disabilities to evacuate. She met them at the train station and accompanied them to places where they could rest for a few days before moving on abroad. Sometimes she had to meet people at night, when there was a curfew, when they had to walk, when sirens were blaring, and the threat of shelling was very real. She became a cog in the logistics mechanism that helped people, saved them from hunger, found places to warm up, and supported them psychologically as much as possible. Once, at the railway station, she had to meet a blind guy who’d managed to escape from Trostianets town in Sumy region, which was under occupation at the time. “It was February outdoors, and he is standing there wearing home slippers…” She had a lot of such stories and examples. And always someone was ready to help, and support was found. Some people would find shelter in Halyna’s hospitable apartment when they needed to take in a person for a few hours or a night. During the first week of the war, Halyna and other members of that team managed to organize a hub of information and psychological support and real help for evacuation of blind people.

Now her helping mission continues. She is happy to work in the “Life After War” rehabilitation and recovery camps. She helps veterans with vision loss to rehabilitate and improve their quality of life. Another case of destiny, again, like many other things in her life, became a lesson and a challenge. When the program of an event told her that she had to work on in a dance-movement therapy class together with a veteran who had a high amputation of his leg, lost his arm, and had no vision, she could not believe it at first. However, the class was a success. A video fragment from it collected about a million views on social media. The veteran also accepted the challenge and coped well with the task. All this proves again that Halyna’s life has a mission to help people with God’s blessing.

To be able to give so much of your resources, you need to replenish them. It is Ukraine, with its picturesque meadows, high mountains, slender fir trees, magical spruces, rushing waterfalls, and crystal air, that helps Halyna. It has become an obligatory habit for her that twice a month she goes to the mountains to enjoy and be filled with the energy of her native land, so as to return and give it out to people in need because you have to be useful where you are!

Prepared by Vladyslava Babenko

“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.