From Concert Pianist to Humanitarian

It's not often that you meet someone like Zenia Kushpeta. She is the driving force behind the Dzherelo Children's Rehabilitation Centre in Lviv, Ukraine, and has devoted her life to helping persons with disabilities in Ukraine. In doing so, she has found the happiness and fulfillment that eludes many of us.

Dzherelo, which translates as "the source," focuses on physical rehabilitation and social integration of disabled children. It was founded in 1993 by Kushpeta, Oksana Kunanec-Swarnyk (a rehabilitation therapist from Toronto), and two Lviv residents, Myroslav Nykolayev and Mykola Swarnyk (both parents of children with cerebral palsy). The center is a testament to the initiative and persistence of its founders.

When Dzherelo opened, children with conditions such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, or autism were hidden from view in Ukraine. The public's attitude towards the disabled was largely fostered by the position of the Ukrainian government, which supported institutionalization over integration.

Kushpeta and her colleagues knew that there was an urgent need for services for the disabled in Ukraine, but even they were surprised by the scope of the need. Originally, official estimates had put the number of families with disabled children at 200; in truth, as Kushpeta and the other founders of Dzherelo discovered, the actual number in the Lviv region was well over 2,000 families.

Changing a society's attitudes towards the disabled and founding a donation-funded rehabilitation center would be an impressive achievement for any healthcare professional. What makes Kushpeta's achievement all the more remarkable is that her background isn't in healthcare – she's a former professor of music and a former concert pianist.

From the Concert Hall to Community Service

Kushpeta is the child of Ukrainian immigrants to Canada. She studied music at the University of Toronto, and after graduation, won a scholarship to the prestigious Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. At the Peabody, she studied under Leon Fleisher and, in 1978, she received a Master's degree in performance.

An extended two-year stay in Paris followed her studies, after which Kushpeta returned to Canada. She then worked for 10 years as a music instructor (at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music and in the School of Music at Queen's University), as a pianist performing in solo recitals, and as a soloist touring with local orchestras.

But Kushpeta wanted something more. She had always been interested in social work, and a one-year sabbatical from Queen's provided the opportunity to give it a try in the form of community service. Despite her desire to help, finding a volunteer position wasn't easy, as she was told she wasn't qualified for many of the volunteer opportunities that interested her. But one organization didn't require any "qualifications" – the L'Arche Daybreak Community in Richmond Hill.

L'Arche Communities

Founded in 1964 by Jean Vanier, L'Arche is actually an international network of faith-based communities that provide homes and day programs for people with developmental disabilities. Kushpeta's experience at L'Arche Daybreak was the first step onto the path that eventually led her to Dzherelo – and away from her career in music.

L'Arche communities are not just about caregiving. Volunteers live full-time with disabled persons, or "friends," so the commitment is huge and, Kushpeta says, the learning is two-way. Indeed, she credits her first charge, Rosie Decker, with opening her eyes to what she calls the "interior wealth" of persons with disabilities.

"Where most of us spend our lives thinking about career, money, or fame," she says, "the disabled remind us of the essentials of being human. By asking basic questions, such as 'will you be my friend,' or 'will you love me,' they give us the gift of simplicity."

Her view is close to the heart of Vanier's original vision for L'Arche. An ecumenical organization open to all faiths, the spiritual core of L'Arche communities lies in the belief that the "poor" are rich in many ways. L'Arche's spirituality, combined with the direct experience of helping people like Rosie, not only renewed Kushpeta's sense of authenticity in religion, it also brought her back to her church.

In Ukraine

Kushpeta eventually left Canada in search of another country in which to continue her work with the disabled. In July 1991, she visited her parents' homeland, Ukraine. Deciding she belonged there, she returned six months later to explore the possibility of creating a community for people with disabilities. But she quickly realized that Ukraine, with its climate of shame and its policy of institutionalizing the disabled, wasn't yet ready for a L'Arche community.

Ukraine remains one of eastern Europe's poorest nations, and that poverty, and a sense of suffering and oppression among the Ukrainian people was on display when Kushpeta first visited Ukraine in July 1991 (a month before it declared independence from the Soviet Union). "I wept the entire time that I was there," she says. And even today, 14 years later, Kushpeta says that the water supply in her Lviv apartment is available for only three hours in the morning, and three hours at night. (Hot water is available only when the building is heated between October and March.)

The Qualifications of the Piano Teacher

Kushpeta began with modest goals, and used a step-by-step approach in setting up Dzherelo. She first helped to organize a support group (Faith in Light) to bring together young people and disabled persons and their families. Indeed, it was through Faith in Light that she met two of Dzherelo's cofounders, Nykolayev and Swarnyk, who were members of Nadiya, a group of parents who had children with cerebral palsy.

After creating the support group, in 1993, Kushpeta and colleagues opened a nursery school intended to be a step towards integrating disabled children into the community. A year later, the old shell of a building was donated to the group, and that building now houses the Dzherelo Children's Rehabilitation Center. Today, the center has buildings at two sites within the Lviv city limits, and is very busy. At any given time, it has over 180 families actively participating in their programs. (And one of Kushpeta's colleagues, Oksana Kunanec-Swarnyk, has established a training program in physical rehabilitation at Lviv's Ivan Franko University.)

Despite the enormity of the task, and the years of hard work, the warmth and enthusiasm Kushpeta's former piano students remember is evident when she tells the story of Dzherelo. It is only when asked what problems she and Dzherelo face that she'll admit, with a deep sigh, "I'm very, very tired and we need money." But, after that heartfelt admission, Kushpeta's fundamentally positive nature reappears, and she redirects the discussion to happier topics of achievements, plans, and goals.

Kushpeta's main goal has always been to open a L'Arche community in Ukraine. And now that Kushpeta and her colleagues have laid the groundwork, and attitudes towards persons with disabilities have begun to change, Kushpeta happily reports: Ukraine is almost ready for its own L'Arche.

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