ARTISTIC OUTLETS FOR THE DISABLED

By Ivana Veselkova

“We all have some kind of handicap which we often try to hide from others; we still have the right to be perceived as equal and unique human beings – so do people with mental handicaps.”

When Lenka Vochocová co-founded the Czech NGO ‘Inventura’ in 2005, it was a gathering of a few like-minded volunteers in Prague, working with a small handful of mentally handicapped clients.

Today, Inventura helps over 20 clients paint, write stories, take photographs, make short films and even put on plays in its own theatre. It’s a unique artistic outlet for the mentally handicapped youngsters – and for its volunteers.

Images created by mentally handicapped people at Inventura

Just six years after its birth, it is a well-known well of inspiration, running its workshops at the International Centre for Contemporary Art in the Czech capital.

But without support and funding from European Commission programmes like the ‘Youth in Action‘ scheme, organisations like Inventura might never even have got started.

Social inclusion is something on which Youth in Action programmes – and the European Union in general – put great emphasis, and that generates international networks.

Inventura is now preparing to take part in an EU-wide conference in November 2011, where they and other similar NGOs will be able to share knowledge, experience and new ways to cooperate.

It‘s been an emotional journey, but Lenka remains positive.

“As a university student I was helping in one protected living house for mentally handicapped,” she says.

“I found out that it was really interesting to talk with people who lived there and they sometimes had some great artistic ideas which they couldn’t realise because they didn’t have the chance to do so.”

Photos, painting, writing, making... - people at Inventura can try it all

Lenka says that Inventura prefers the term ‘mental handicap’ over ‘mentally disabled’, because it better describes the situation of Inventura’s clients: these people, she says, just have some sort of handicaps which may make it more difficult for them to handle with all the obstacles in our world.

Any young people who are interested in work with mentally handicapped artists are encoutaged to contact Inventura and can join their effort – and since this is the European Year of Volunteering, there has never been a better time.

“We don’t have the approach, ‘let just the poor young people with mental handicap do something’ – we want to make things which will be somehow enriching or inspiring for all of us,” adds Lenka.

“It is not always as easy as it sounds but I love my work in Inventura and I really think we do something that can change people’s opinion on people with mental handicaps.”