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Name Surname:<\/b>Irina Parhomenko During Soviet Union I obtained professional education and worked as an economist and accountant. After my incident, I was 40 years old then, two to three years I tried to overcome my new physical existence and state. After, I enrolled in State\u2019s Social Integration Agency\/College and obtained my degree as industry\u2019s trade worker. At the time, it was the only specialty available, so I had to go with that! Also, I had to study at distance, since my daughter at the time wasn\u2019t of full legal age and I had to help my mother as well. Within the organization 'Apeirons' I have created a discussion club who has been happening for 7 years already. Nevertheless, my biggest achievement is the creation of employment support service, in 6 years of its action, we have helped to employ more than 130 people. I have finished English, Latvian and French language courses, courses in accountancy and record management, as well as project management courses. I have experience in translating texts from Russian to Latvian and vice versa.<\/p><\/div> Almost 10 years after the accident which put me in the wheelchair, I was unemployed, but in 2005 \u2018Apeirons\u2019 asked me to participate in project which prepared information for Russian speaking people with disabilities \u2013 about different topics connected with social inclusion, employment, education and citizenship. I translated organization\u2019s \u2018Apeirons\u2019 homepage from Latvian to Russian language, translation experience was something new for me. I also developed a new section which informed about people with disabilities and their hobbies. After that, \u2018Apeirons\u2019 director saw me as communicable women which is able to achieve things and asked me to create and organize discussion clubs.My daily life also describes public work \u2013 I give information to media, I attend different seminars and trainings, I have organized and managed motivational seminar on employment.For 6 years now, we provide people with disabilities with employment support service. At the beginning, we looked for cooperation partners, taking into consideration all things necessary for people with special needs. We wrote 100 or 150 e-mails, inviting companies to cooperate and meet with us in person, but only 25 companies responded. Most of them were the big companies, such as banks, who have the obligation to be socially responsible. In that way, we employed only few people. Our main principle is to have an individual approach to each person. We often have people asking for help, which are older than 50 years \u2013 whether they have lost their qualification because of the time or their disability, or they face long-term unemployment. We try to work together with these people \u2013 we collaborate with psychologist, consultants, and social workers \u2013 in the end it is kind of like comprehensive consultation with individual approach. Also, we cooperate with Riga\u2019s Social service and our main aim is to help to find a job for person, also our objective is to turn these people from beneficiary to tax payer. Our employment service doesn\u2019t only help to find a job \u2013 in cooperation with State Employment Agency, we provide people with career consultations \u2013 people assure us that they are very satisfied, because these consultations can give them information which I and my colleague perhaps cannot.In these 6 years, we have helped people to become not only financially stable, but also socially active. Often, we ask them \u2013 why do you want to work? They answer that not only because of financial stability, but also to be useful, to be among people and society. Our experience with this service has been mentioned in international conference among Lithuania\u2019s, Denmark\u2019s and Finland\u2019s experience. I now see that our main principle \u2013 individual approach to each person \u2013 has been integrated into State Employment Agency\u2019s daily practice.I had some obstacles along my path to success, for example, I didn\u2019t get any support from my family, just contrary \u2013 all the time I was forced to prove that people with disabilities are also people, that they can achieve big things. Here, in \u2018Apeirons\u2019 I got the support I needed, it helped me to improve myself and to come out of my comfort zone. I challenged myself and succeeded in things which I thought I couldn\u2019t accomplish. Perhaps, I had the feeling that maybe I could do it, but nor did I have time or specific reason to use this opportunity and improve myself. When I came here, I saw people with much more severe disabilities than I have, but how they lived and the things they accomplished! I saw that they can be happy, to have a family, etc. With the time, I felt embarrassed \u2013 I just couldn\u2019t be weak and squeamish anymore. I just had to overcome these obstacles which come with disability. It is good to forget that you are a person with disability, because, first you are a person, disability is not your stamp. I\u2019m just like any other women. The only difference is that I move around in a wheelchair. One of my friends says \u2013 not disabled but injured. Because we are strong and their spirit is strong, and people should take example from them. There are paradoxical situations when disability change life by 180 degrees for the better. It can affect life positively \u2013 you just cannot and do not want to be less successful, when you have examples which prove that everything is possible.Speaking about other obstacles \u2013 my main obstacle and enemy are stairs, environmental barriers, and all of those moments when I cannot get from point A to point B. Although, it seems that situation is getting better and Latvia is the most environmentally available country among Baltic states.<\/p><\/div> I have various skills which I have gained through my professional career, such as different language skills \u2013 French, Latvian, and English. Through employment support service I teach Latvian for Russian speaking people with disabilities. Also, we teach how to use computer and simple programmes for those people who do not have many experience with technologies. I consider myself communicable, therefore I have good communication skills and it\u2019s easy for me to find common ground with different people.<\/br>I have good organizational skills \u2013 I have prepared and organized motivational seminar about employment. I feel great responsibility towards my work, and always do my duties with high accuracy. I enjoy and am able to work in a team, but honestly, I prefer to work independently. I feel empathy towards people I work with \u2013 I am a good listener. I\u2019m always open to new experiences, ideas. Thanks to the specifics of my job, I\u2019m also able to consult people on different topics connected with employment. I have fruitful experience with making cooperation with various institutions, companies and people. I have a good sense of humour which helps me both in my professional and personal life.<\/p><\/div> Everything is possible, if you want it to be! It is really important to have an example, which allows you to see that it is worth to try, to start something and achieve it. You must say to yourself \u2013 yes, I will start! You have to make the first step and when you do that, you will start to feel the strength within yourself and willingness to make the next step. And just like that, without attracting any attention, you will start to lead your own way and life will reward you with new challenges. It is the choice of an individual \u2013 whether to accept challenges as a way to improvement.<\/br>Do not be afraid, do not be afraid from the unknown, rather \u2013 just start doing and then little by little you will see the \u201cbig picture\u201d and you will have the understanding. After that, you should become confident and your overall state of mind will change.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1793,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-country","category-latvia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2295,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/466\/revisions\/2295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCountry:<\/b> Latvia
\nCity:<\/b> Riga
\nNationality:<\/b> Russian
\nSector:<\/b> Services and Non-governmental or Third sector
\nPosition:<\/b> Project coordinator in organization 'Apeirons', the founder of the employement's support service
\nBackground: <\/b>Before the accident, which is the reason why Irina is in a wheelchair, she worked as an economist and accountant. Later on, she obtained education in Social Integration State Agency as industry\u2019s trade worker. In organization \u2018\u2019Apeirons\u2019\u2019 she has created employment support service. In 6 years this service has helped to employ 130 people with disabilities and special needs.
\nSector:<\/b> Services and Non-governmental or Third sector
\nPosition:<\/b> Project coordinator in organization 'Apeirons'; the founder of the employement's support service. http:\/\/www.apeirons.lv\/new\/<\/p><\/div>