Helping Children With Special Needs in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

(FJC.ru) Staff and children from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine's Special Needs Education Resource Center visited the local Ohr Avner-Levi Yitzchak Schneerson Day School last week to expose the school's students to children with special needs. The visit occurred on the last day of Chanukah.

The resource center is a joint project between the Beit Chana Women's Pedagogical College and the Jewish community of Boston in the United States. Visits between the center and the Chabad-Lubavitch affiliated Ohr Avner school occur regularly so that children in both programs can interact.

Students in Ohr Avner's primary grades prepared a special concert program for their guests. Afterwards, the teachers and youngsters from the resource center put on their own Chanukah play. The children then joined together in singing songs and a group art project.

"It is important to tell children that life is not all full of joy, but there also exists illnesses that bring with them challenges connecting with one's peers and surrounding world," explained Anna Kaplunskaya, one of the event's coordinators. "Our pupils must understand that children with special needs need love and attention from their peers."

At the end of the gathering, the Ohr Avner students presented resource center staff with the charity funds they collected over the past couple of months.