In ten days we really did become one family. Leaving the camp, I cried, because I felt I had lived a separate life there.
ANASTASIIA KURHANSKA, KERCH
In 2010, when I was a third-year student at the Faculty of Human Health, I got the chance — chosen among the many classmates who also wanted to go — to do my placement at an active rehabilitation camp as a volunteer. Together with other young men and women I worked with wheelchair users who, in different circumstances, in different situations, in different cities and families, holding different views of the world, had sustained cervical spine injuries. It is a very serious injury. And how surprised I was: these very people were learning to live in a new way, learning to be happy!
And yes! In ten days we really did become one family. Leaving the camp, I cried, because I felt I had lived a separate life there. Back home, looking through the photographs, I named the album exactly that — «A little life»…
I admit it was not easy to help grown people learn to live anew: to wake up, to dress, to eat, to do sport, to talk, to savour every minute, to go out, to laugh, to fall asleep… And even if many of the participants I spoke with at the camp will never walk again, that does not mean they cannot be truly happy, live life to the full, improve the quality of their own lives and the lives of those around them, and think positively.
Back then I drew an important conclusion: you have to fight for your life! Believe in yourself! Never stop at what you have achieved! Set grand goals and reach them! Having encountered so many different life stories of people in wheelchairs, I realised that my student life is a heap of opportunities and prospects. Coming home, I told myself: «Nastia, act!»
To all past and future participants and instructors of active rehabilitation camps I sincerely wish happiness and health.
