Residents of Nizhnekamsk were given a lecture about inclusion and motivation at a special session
10 april 2023
On April 9, Nizhnekamsk hosted a meeting for inclusive communities held as part of the interregional project "You can do anything!" implemented within the framework of SIBUR's social investment program, the Formula for Good Deeds. At the gathering, celebrity speakers with disabilities used their personal life stories to explain to the attendees what it takes to get fully integrated into public life, including through one’s presence on social media.
As we strive to build an inclusive environment within our company, projects such as this, on top of everything else, serve as an opportunity to scout for potential employees who can join our team. Diversity helps expand our collective experience and address non-standard challenges using out-of-the-box solutions, while putting one’s creativity to good use. We have also been supporting various inclusive initiatives through our Formula for Good Deeds social investment program. Since last year, our program has been expanded to include yet another focus areas with its own flagship project titled "You can do anything!” When attending the project’s motivational meetings, one can’t but feel the positive energy and inner strength emanating from all these people who had run into a challenge in their lives at one point or another and faced them with dignity. This gives you a boost of positivity and faith in your own abilities, an understanding that anything that life may throw at you can be overcome, as long there is a will to do so. Their strong desire to live is palpable. This cannot but inspire and motivate all these people who are ready to face the challenges straight up, Marina Medvedeva, SIBUR’s Board Member and Managing Director, commented.
The meeting featured a talk by Nikolai Lukyanov, a world champion in Paralympic fencing and a public figure, who shared his secret of how to change one’s life thanks to regular exercise. Alexander Golovatenko, a special guest of the event and director of Tatarstan’s Social Center-SOS (Pomoshch), gave a talk about boosting motivation through patriotic education. Aleksey Trantsev, Olga Lifanova and Darya Suloyeva, moderators of the City of Opportunities blog discussed the fundamental rules for being successful on social networks. In all, the gathering was attended by more than 200 Nizhnekamsk residents.
An inclusive environment is possible when you have created equal conditions for active living for all people, regardless of their individual differences. Nizhnekamsk’s city administration has been doing a lot to improve accessibility of social sector facilities across the city. But people’s motivation is equally important, and that is why it is so important to work on that. We really liked the idea of holding such motivational meetings, and the Theater of Young Spectators really succeeded in creating a truly inclusive atmosphere, Ramil Mullin, Head of Nizhnekamsk Municipal District and the Mayor of Nizhnekamsk, commented.
The motivational meeting came as a natural follow-up to the inclusive initiatives that SIBUR has been supporting in Nizhnekamsk since 2022.
Nizhnekamsk joined the Formula for Good Deeds program last year. As a result, the city has become a part of large-scale interregional projects giving its local activists an opportunity to receive grant support, while Nizhnekamskneftekhim volunteers get a chance to have their ideas materialized. We have been actively involved in implementing various inclusive practices. As an example, a team of teachers from Moscow gives regular music classes to children with mental disabilities, while the Children’s Art School "Constellation" has been busy rehearsing an inclusive musical show, and the company’s volunteers conduct regular inclusive creativity development classes and give cooking master classes. Incidentally, many of our grantees and volunteers came to participate in today’s motivational meeting today, Marat Falyakhov, Nizhnekamskneftekhim’s First Deputy General Director for Production, Operational Efficiency and Production System Development, noted.
The meeting was open to all who wished to participate. The event was fully accessible for people with low-mobility conditions.
Ours is the only educational institution in the region that teaches therapeutic massage skills to visually impaired people. This meeting saw stories of successful people converge with their specific recipes for success. Everyone was deeply touched by Nikolai Lukyanov’s path to becoming a world champion. The same goes for the truly educational life story of Olga Lifanova who quickly became an idol for many of our students. This taught us a useful lesson on how one can make oneself seen and heard, find one’s own niche in this life, and start socializing with others. Our students were very impressed, Leyla Yusupova, Head of the Therapeutic Massage Department at the Nizhnekamsk Medical College, noted.
Ahead of the meeting, Mikhail Chetvertakov, one of the co-organizers of the "You Can Do Anything!” project, and Nikolai Lukyanov, Paralympic fencing world champion, paid a visit to the "Nadezhda (Hope)" orphanage for children with disabilities and shared their life stories with the wards of the orphanage. Afterwards, everyone could try their hand at Paralympic fencing engaging in a fight against the world champion.
Meetings such as this really motivate our wards not to give up and believe in their abilities. This was especially valuable for future graduates of institutions such as ours, as they saw so many successful people with disabilities in a span of just two days. I was very impressed by the speakers’ positive attitude to everything that is going on and by the ease with which they discussed the hardships they had experienced and what they had done to deal with them. After meetings such as these, you get more confident that anything is possible: you just have to work hard, believe in yourself, and you will be sure to get the results you desire, Lyudmila Zaitseva, Principal of the "Nadezhda (Hope)" orphanage for children with disabilities, commented.