Wings of Hope
(March 2005-February 2006)

This project is creating a publishing center for handicapped youth to provide them with professional skills and jobs. Courses on accounting, computers and journalism have been organized for young invalids to help them develop marketable skills. The director of the training courses commented that “one should see these young faces – smiling, open, happy. They are inspired by the possibility to communicate, to get acquainted with new interesting people, to feel themselves as an equal part of the society.”

Based on the skills learned in the courses, the students launched a new magazine, called Wings of Hope, which is by young people with special needs and for young people with special needs. The newspaper focuses attention on the problems of handicapped people, and also provides a forum for handicapped youth to publish articles, poems and drawings about their lives.

The center is designed to develop into a sustainable educational-publishing center for printing various types of documents, papers, manuals, and recommendations ordered by state agencies, private organizations and individuals. The continuation of the center and the magazine will help further the adaptation of handicapped youth into society.