Inclusion with a touch of taste

31 march 2023

The Chocolate Workshop, an inclusive volunteering project and a recipient of one of the grants of SIBUR's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program, a brainchild of ZapSibNeftekhim lawyer Denis Kryukov, came to an end in Tobolsk. Denis Kryukov, chocolatier Olga Egorova and participants of the workshop had met to share their ideas, plans for the future, and ... delicious bits of chocolate, for sure.

Denis Kryukov, the 20-year veteran lawyer of ZapSibNeftekhim, got involved in volunteering in 2021 when he organized a series of origami master classes Paper Wonders using the funds of his first Formula for Good Deeds grant. But because of the COVID-19 pandemic the project dragged for nearly a whole year instead of the originally scheduled period of six months. In 2022, Denis and his team revised the concept of their inclusive project, and the paper wonder got replaced by one made of chocolate.

To begin with, handling chocolate is just more interesting by itself. Secondly, children with disabilities can choose it as their future profession as you can make handmade candy right at your home. And the key thing here is their socialization. Our ultimate goal and utmost desire is to make sure that people with disabilities are not afraid of the people around them, and that other people are not scared of them, Denis Kryukov, the project’s author and legal counsel with ZapSibNeftekhim, noted.

The only downside of chocolate workshops is that you can only hold them during certain seasons as delivering a master class in a warm season is impossible because the material you work with gets melted right before your eyes and in your hands. That is the reason why the workshops’ organizers try to schedule them before the arrival of spring. Olga Egorova, a chocolatier with 13 years of experience, acted as the instructor at the sweet master classes.

I gladly responded to the invitation of my friend and former colleague Denis to take part in his volunteering initiative. For our workshops, we only buy high-quality Belgian and French chocolate. While I wait for the chocolate to get to its right state, I share various stories about chocolate with my audiences, Olga shared.

Young chocolatiers and their parents are encouraged to create their own masterpieces by filling the pre-formed molds with a filling to their own taste and by adorning them with nuts, bits of cookies, caramel, or other edible decorations. The children can then take their chocolate art masterpieces home with them.

We attended these master classes for the first time a year ago and we loved it. When I had told my son the day before coming to this workshop that we were going to handmake some chocolate he got very excited. He was really looking forward to it. Gatherings such as these ones are like a breath of fresh air for us, Lyubov Bublik commented.

These chocolate-making workshops are just such extended joy. Our children start out by enjoy the master class, and then we eat chocolate at home for a few more days and keep enjoying it, Margarita Lyubas noted.

Since the start of 2023, more than 50 children have taken part in the Chocolate Workshop project. The inclusive chocolate workshops have been hosted by the Tobolsk branch of All-Russian Society of the Disabled and by the multicenter Moya Territoriya. Their organizers have a dream that all these diverse workshops will one day become an ongoing event with their own fixed venue and that all people with disabilities will be able to attend them.