Dream of export

They try not to notice people with mental features in society. And they just go their own way. And the world is changing

Help the life path to help

Arik is fond of and, together with the burrs, shuts off the corner of the blank for the flashlight. For several years of work, he made more than one thousand such lanterns. But I forgot a little how right. Because I have not been in the workshop for three years.

A few years ago, Arika was beaten by a janitor. For his mother, this was the last drop - she was scared to stay in Moscow, and she and Arik moved to Israel.

But Arik really wanted to be again with all the guys at the table in the workshop, listen to Andrei’s remarks, inhale the smell of a tree and watch how the drill, slying, plunges into a blank, then to become an amazing wooden toy. Every day he asked his mother when they would go to Moscow or invite Andrei to Israel. And for two days his mother brought him to Moscow. Especially in the "Blessed Artel".

“I'm not small, I'm 24 years old,” Ariel repeats several times quickly. "Have you seen my crafts?" The fact that the toys made by him can be given to friends and acquaintances is his special pride. Arik, choking in words, says: “Still, it’s great that we arrived. I am so glad to see Andrey. I like it so here. " Then he plunges into work again, and silence comes at the table, only a shuffling sound of sandwiches and a working machine is heard.

Arik in the "Blessed" Photo Artel: from the Personal Archive

Eight people work concentrated in the workshop, leaning over the table. But Arica shows how excitedly he is and is about to begin to share emotions again. He tells how long they flew to Moscow yesterday and stood in traffic jams. And now he is here and is very happy about this.

He, of course, does not remember how he shouted under the doors of the carpentry workshop on the first day, that he would not go there, does not want to, and in general he does not know anyone there, leave me alone. Andrei looked at the resting boy and told him: “Do you want to go? Well, okay, don't. I have a lot of guys here, I have someone to work. ” And Arik immediately followed him. These somewhat steps turned his life and gave the main thing - meaning. For the same few seconds that the midwife once had enough to forever change the life of little Ariel and his mother Svetlana.

Even those on whom they have been putting the stigma “UNDERSTAND” have been working in the “Blessed Artels”

Severe birth injury, early children's autism. The path prepared in Russia for children with mental disability is simple and short to horror: first correctional schools, and then complete oblivion. A person is written off from accounts, locked in four walls and perplexed: what other work, what other development and communication?! Does the state pay a pension? Pays. That's not the corn of the eye. Together with the children, their relatives are sent to oblivion and imprisonment. You can’t leave one person who is deprived of a person with the mental characteristics. Attacks, aggression, depression begin from idleness and not waste energy, they are jammed with medicines, and so to infinity - a vicious circle.

Andrei Tevkin was able to break this circle. He created the “Blessed Artel” - a carpentry workshop for adults and children with different mental features, which have practically no chance to find a job. The ability to work for them is not only a matter of earnings, but also one of the few ways to maintain human dignity.

Andrey Tevkin (left) and Arik in the workshop before leaving for Israel photo: from personal archive

Even those on whom they have been putting the stigma “unstoppted” have been working in the “Blessed Artels”. Arik is just one of those. All experts who for many years examined him were unanimous in their conclusions - can hold attention for one minute, the most severe form of attention deficiency and hyperactivity. On the first day, the ARICA enthusiastically and concentrated worked for four hours in a row. And when it began to work out on the third day, it was not to be taken out of the workshop. Mom says that the “artel” for Arika was a turning point in life, it was here that he felt like a man. And yet they had to leave.

Arik got into the age of 18. He began to say that he did not need custody and accompaniment, after his work he ran away, hung for hours in the subway and did not answer phone calls. The noise of the subway and the endless movement of Aric's trains completely fascinated. The older he became and the more he strove for independence, the worse his mother was for his life. In some ways, he thinks better than others, and in some way a perfect baby, naive and good-natured. He can leave with a stranger and does not understand at all why someone can cause rage.

Outwardly, you can’t say that he has some features, so a sudden change in the behavior of an adult young man often caused an aggressive reaction of others, especially in transport. Arik could begin to say something loudly or move sharply. There were several unpleasant incidents. And then Arika swept and beat a janitor from the neighboring courtyard with a stick from the broom, and Svetlana decided that she needed to leave.

In Israel, Ariel lives in a special social hostel in Tel Aviv with the same guys with auto spectrum disorders. There is accompaniment. But still this is not with mom by the handle. He became much more independent, he has his own society, friends, his own life. Every morning they are taken to work in the employment center. From nine to two - simple monotonous work. Packing, assembly. No creativity. Arik was very bored. Svetlana searched all of Israel in search of a center, similar to the "blessed artel." And I found nothing. The only slightly similar workshop, which leads the same enthusiastic ascetic as Tevkin, is designed for people with a serious disorder of the psyche and deep schizophrenia. The profile is not the same at all.

Arik and Eran. The first Israeli craft Arica is a plate of olive wood photo: From a personal archive

If Svetlana will ever get tired of teaching music, she will be able to become the chief expert on carpentry in Israel. It is unlikely that anyone else studied all the carpentry workshops in the country. Once she decided to write a letter to Eran-the owner of a small carpentry workshop in a kibbutz in the south of Israel. She talked about Arica and his addiction to the carpentry. He invited them to come, and when he saw how Aririk's eyes lit up at the sight of carpentry tools, he decided to deal with him. With a light hand, Svetlana Eran won a grant in Israel to organize a carpentry workshop for people with mental disorders. And now he is going to come to Moscow, get acquainted with Andrei and see how the extraordinary “blessed artel” is arranged, about which the boy Arik and his mother buzzed all his ears. Maybe soon Andrei Tevkin’s dream of creating artels for people with features will begin to be carried out. Even so far and not in Russia, but in the Middle East. And Arik will become a beam, a guide for this movement.

In the world of analogues, "Blessed Artels" are practically no. And what is is very different. “For the most part, these are places where people are poured from relaxed idiots,” says Andrei Tevkin.

But before amazing toys begin to appear from the hands of special joiners, each will report more than one blank. To teach, convey the ability to handle wood and work with tools, we need masters-providing and specialists who know the approach to learning people with features. If you sign up for a monthly donation, others seem to be adults-but all the same defenseless boys and girls will be able to start working for real. They really want, but you need to help them take the first step.