Through our project, Barrier-free Safety for People with Disabilities, INKuLtur presents a series of seven moving stories that reveal the extraordinary strength of those displaced by war. These seven individuals with disabilities, as well as parents of children with disabilities from Ukraine, share their personal experiences of escaping conflict and seeking refuge.

Their stories provide a profound look into the unique challenges and barriers they and their families face as they navigate survival amidst the war in Ukraine. From the devastation of Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Kyiv to their journeys to safety in Berlin, witness the resilience of those who refuse to be defined by hardship.

Seven Video Portraits. Seven Inspiring Journeys.

Join us on this journey to understand true resilience. Watch, learn, and become part of the change. In times of crisis and peace alike, every story holds power, every voice matters.

“Starting life over”: The story of Olena and her son Nazar

Nazar, 11, still often goes to school in Berlin, Germany, with a blanket over him. Just as he did in the spring of 2022, when he and his mother Olena were fleeing their hometown of Mariupol, which was being ferociously destroyed by Russian troops. Olena is sometimes pierced by lightning memories of the sea, of the house destroyed by enemy bombing, of her favorite work, in which she poured her soul… Watch the video to find out what Olena and Nazar managed to survive during three weeks of bombing in Mariupol, how they evacuated the city, and what their life in Berlin is like now.

“Nothing is possible without trust.” The story of Tetiana and her father Leonid

The feeling of utter despair that overwhelmed Tetiana on February 24, 2022, is impossible to forget. After all, her dearest ones – her mother, father and grandmother, who was 93 years old at the time – remained in her native Kyiv, where Russian troops were breaking through. How to save them? Who can help? After dozens of hours without sleep, constant calls searching, she was given the contacts of the actors of the Theater on the Left Bank, who agreed to help her find wheelchairs, to get her father, who has Parkinsons´s disease, out of her mother´s house, now able to get to the train station and on the evacuation train with her father and grandmother. Watch more about the family’s life today and why Tetiana’s relatives are being discriminated against in the video.

This video was produced within the project “Barrier-free Safety for People with Disabilities”, which is the part of INKuLtur-Programme implemented by Austausch e.V. together with Eastern Partnership countries funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.