I visit the female colony at least once a month, talk to the women, and they share their problems and needs. I conduct training and legal consultations. I talk not only to the women who are serving sentences but to the staff as well. The humanization process is still ongoing, but I'm glad to see a change for the better.

All children love games, competitions, workshops and dancing. But there are almost no educational and entertainment facilities for children – especially adolescents – with complex disorders. Three years ago, we conducted a summer Space Camp for children with and without any diagnosis.

We strive for equal access to quality education for all children. We conduct training for teachers to overcome stereotypical negative attitudes towards Roma children, and we work with Roma families to explain the importance of education for their children. Often, Roma children do not attend kindergarten, and thus they fall behind their peers at school. Teachers find it more difficult to work with Roma children, and other parents do not want Roma in the classroom with their children. But it is absurd at first to expel Roma children from schools and then to complain that they are not educated.

Just Like You is a joint project of Real Stories Production and the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

In the beginning, we opened a simple “hotline” for people from the East. We have just moved to Kyiv, bought some sim-cards, and posted on social media that we are providing help with relocation from the conflict area. People from Lviv, Ternopil, Kharkiv were calling us saying that they can host some people from Non-Government Controlled Areas. Also, people from Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts were calling for help with relocation. We worked ad hoc – depending from requests, which were different every time, At first people addressed us for help with finding apartment, safe relocation, and then they started to call us for legal aid, for example how to relocate a child without father’s formal approval if he joined armed groups of the so-called “Luhansk People’s Republic”.

Homeless people live with a constant feeling of danger. Theirs is a dog eat dog world, and everyone is against them. And when they are offered help, especially housing, it is difficult for them to accept it. By their standards, this is huge money. It is difficult for them to believe that people wouldn’t want anything in return.

When I am asked how do I live with this, with so many deaths that I’ve seen with my own eyes, I ask in response, "How do midwives live?" Every day they see someone born with their own eyes. Does it strongly affect their picture of the world? It’s just the natural course of life. People are born and people die. It's very sad when people die, very sad when people die early without doing something they wanted. It’s sad when people die suddenly. It’s sad when people die from serious illnesses or injuries.

My daughter sees me as both her dad and Nastia. She may also call me by name, especially when we spend several days together, as she hears how others call me, how they treat me. I want her to know everything about me so that she wants to spend time with me in the future. That she could tell others about me as a happy, successful woman – and not be ashamed of it. That others in her environment can understand it, be comfortable with it. Fortunately, I think we are heading for a society where people can respect the choices of others, including when it comes to gender.

“We are all one accidentaway from a disability,” they say. That’s what happened to me. I am from Yevpatoria, I lived all my life by the sea, and at the age of 19 I jumped from the pier recklessly. Now I know that in such cases, you must lay the injured person on the ground and call an ambulance. You should never move the person or make him or her sit up. Back then, in 2007, my friends pulled me out of the water, put me in a car and took me to the hospital.

In my work, I primarily protect women and girls. Not because I am against the protection of men and boys, but because historically women have been granted rights later than men, and in many situations they face less favourable attitudes. It is mostly women who face stereotypes. If you take into account the misogynic attitudes in our society, it becomes crystal clear how much strength and courage it takes for women to accept themselves.