Echoes of the Great Victory in the hearts of young men who broke the law

Every year, during the summer, a festival of creative mastery for the wards of the colonies — “Chervona Kalyna” — takes place in all juvenile correctional colonies throughout Ukraine.
This year, in the Perevalsk correctional colony, this festival took place on 26 June and was timed to coincide with the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
The baton was passed by representatives of the Pryluky colony (in which the festival took place a week earlier). As a gift to the colonists and staff, colleagues from the Poltava region presented an icon of the Mother of God.
The Head of the Directorate of the State Department of Ukraine for the Execution of Sentences in the Luhansk region, Colonel of the Internal Service Serhii Viktorovych Burlakov, congratulated everyone present on the opening of the festival and wished the young men a successful performance.
The colony’s wards prepared for “Chervona Kalyna” for a long time and thoroughly, realising the significance of the main theme of the event. Out of 150 young men serving sentences, about 80 people participated in the festival in one way or another.
Both detachments performed worthily. The guys showed wonderful skits of the war years and performed famous and beloved songs about the Great Patriotic War.
Based on the results of the performance, the jury awarded victory to Detachment No. 2. They impressed all the spectators not only with their knowledge of the history of the heroic victory but also with modern acrobatic exercises that successfully fit into the script of their performance. After this, the most long-awaited moment came for the young men serving sentences — the moment of presenting the well-deserved prizes.
As gifts, the wards received a television set and a video player from the Head of the Directorate for the Execution of Sentences in the Luhansk region, S. V. Burlakov; a rooster and a hen were donated to the colony’s pet corner, as well as many football and volleyball balls, and also 200 pairs of sports trousers and 180 T-shirts from the volunteer detachment of the Luhansk State Medical University “Dobrodetel” [Virtue], led by Tetiana Laptinova.
But the most long-awaited gift for three of the guys was release on parole, which they received from the hands of S.V. Burlakov.
The Luhansk Regional Charitable Foundation “Podrostok” [Teenager] has been cooperating with the Perevalsk colony for 10 years already. During this time, various social-educational and preventive work has been and is being carried out with the wards. An original and memorable gift was made by the Chairman of the Board of the “Podrostok” Foundation, Volodymyr Honcharov. To touch the hearts of the guys and awaken a sense of respect for the defenders of the Motherland and patriotism, the Choir of War and Labour Veterans of the Luhansk Regional House of Culture (artistic director Nelli Viktorivna Maliuhina) was invited to the festival.
The grandmothers and grandfathers from the choir put a piece of their heart and soul into their performance, performing musical works of the war years, despite the 40-degree heat.
The young men, their relatives, and the staff were delighted with such a gift and listened to the choir’s performance standing up. For the first time, the Choir of War and Labour Veterans performed before young men who had broken the law.
After the festive event ended, the wards serving sentences were able to communicate with their parents and loved ones who were present at the festival.
The celebration would not have been able to take place without the support of the Directorate of Transport and Communications of the Luhansk Regional State Administration, which provided transport for the choir to travel to the festival at the Perevalsk colony. Thanks to the understanding of the Directorate’s management, five social workers and six parents from cities and districts remote from the colony were also able to visit their children and wards.

Olha Makeieva,
volunteer of the Charitable Foundation “Podrostok”