“The Russian army has left traces on the body of Irpen, as the city is still lying. In 23 days of occupation, 54% of the city’s housing stock was damaged, and more than 25% of housing was completely destroyed. According to the city authorities, more than 16,000 Irpinians were left without a roof over their head.”, – WRITE: www.pravda.com.ua
Housing has been rebuilt for the third year – both residents and state, local and donor programs. But whether this housing was restored, and even more so, whether it became more accessible to people with disabilities, who are now a lot in our country now, no one understood.
We founded the Brave Irpin NGO two years ago on the basis of a volunteer team that helped in the protection and primary restoration of the community, and during this time they did a lot. In particular, in the spring of 2024, the monitoring project “Expenditure Control of Recovery” was filed and the reconstruction of Irpen was monitored, which takes place at the state and communal expense. This is how we have promoted 12 objects: six kindergartens, four schools and two outpatient clinics, and we are now checking for apartment buildings. This allowed us to look at the quality of Irpen’s reconstruction much deeper.
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Object monitoring consisted of several parts. One part of our work is an assessment of the transparency of making decisions on the restoration, discussion of reconstruction projects with the community, taking into account the opinion of residents, etc. The second part is to check the observance of the principles of energy efficiency, barrier and quality of reconstruction after the restoration of objects, that is, whether the rule is really working “to rebuild better than it was.”
During public monitoring, we found two problems.
The first problem is the lack of priority in reconstruction. The state funding programs initially came to the objects that have undergone minor destruction, while the destroyed houses, which the state should be renewed first, is still preserved. The reasons are different – whether residents were concerned with the issue of reconstruction of their home, to the absence of a methodology by which objects would be selected.
We asked this question to the responsible managers of the Irpin City Council and concluded that the first were to receive funding those homes that were less affected, because it was easier for them to make project documents and undergo examination. That is, they had time to design the projected documentation first. We also recorded a certain type of local lobbying in Irpen, when the first documents made on the so -called “ZhEKiv” houses, that is, those where the management company now is the communal enterprise of the UZHKG “Irpin”, but the ACMH and private management companies were mostly searched for funding.
Publicity, that is, media recognition of destroyed housing, also played a role. In particular, the LCD “Irpin Lipki”, the destruction of which was seen by all international delegations and first persons of the world, who visited Irpin in 2022-2023, has now become the most expensive object of reconstruction in Irpen-the price of reconstruction of one house has started from 611 million hryvnias and in the process of capital recovery. This facility, which has a condominium and management company, has been on the priority of the reconstruction, as well as the 90% private sector opposite this LCD was destroyed. At the same time, all other private sector homes have received minimal assistance from the city council, because these destroyed housing owners are advised to use the State Equinal Program.
The second problem is the lack of understanding of the projectors and contractors what true availability is and what people with disabilities are really needed. From our monitoring, which we conducted with the executive director of NGO “Active Rehabilitation Group” Vitaliy Pcholkkin, often argued that the barrier was “for a tick”: when a ramp, a lift, a toilet room for people on a wheel chair seems to be, but they are not functioning.
And this second point is the flaw of all reconstruction in Ukraine. It is impossible to say that projects and builders forget about the needs of people with disabilities. Each object we tested in Irpen had certain elements of the system – ramps, special marking on the floor and walls, universal toilet cabins and more. But every time the monitoring group recorded that to put the attention of a person with disabilities and his needs to builders. As a result, the ramps were slippery, the wrong slope, arranged from the rear of the buildings, did not have the right handrails, there was no help call button, the canopy over the ramp was too small or absent. Or – the lift inside the building could be, but not to work, whether the staff had no experience with this device.
The war forced us as society to look at the world through the eyes of man with disabilities and to understand his needs. We also studied in the Brave Irpin NGO while working on the project. There were trainings, read instructions, attracted barrier experts. We were not frightened that we were not experts in reconstruction. Civil society should control how Ukraine is rebuilt, and the experience and necessary knowledge and skills can be acquired.
Thanks to our activity, the theme of barrierhood has received publicity in Irpen. We made monitoring visits to the objects on video and later made short films, wrote a lot about the conclusions of our experts on social networks, and in the summer of 2024 presented our conclusions at the session of the Irpin City Council. And not just pointed out the mistakes, but developed a methodological guide that now Irpin authorities and institutions of institutions can correctly introduce barrier in the city.
We rejoice that the local authorities and customers of the reconstruction perceived experts and together corrected most of the shortcomings. Moreover, in Irpen, much more attention is paid to the issues of barrier, which should soon become part of a new veteran policy that will be implemented in the city. Finally, several available toilet rooms appeared in the center.
Mikhail Skoryk-Shkarrovskayafounder of NGO “Brave Irpin”
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