About the dignity of the child in the language of art - the project “SAFEGUARDING. Child Safety in the Church Environment”
On April 18-21, the Center for Child Dignity of the Ukrainian Catholic University presented the project “SAFEGUARDING. Child Safety in the Church Environment", which included the art installation ”Recognize. Respond” art installation in the gallery of the Dzyga Art Center. Everyone could see the exhibition and leave their own reflection on the topic of child safety.
“SAFEGUARDING. Child Safety in the Church Environment” is an international project with a training course on child safety at its heart. The team of UCU's Center for the Dignity of the Child worked on the initiative for about a year together with colleagues from 5 countries - Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. The result of the joint work was an educational course for clergy, religious, and lay adults who have to take care of the safety of children in the church, as well as an art installation.
Khrystyna Shabat, head of UCU's Center for the Dignity of the Child, says that the topic of violence against children is quite taboo in society: “We were looking for a format to talk about the difficult topic of violence without preaching, but in a way that would make people think about this problem and pay attention to it.”
Child safety is a common problem, so each partner country contributed to the project's implementation, Khrystyna Shabat says, adding: “We wanted the project to sound universal and be understandable to everyone, so we chose the language of art, a language that has no borders and is understood by everyone.”
As part of the presentation, the project team met with Taras Dobko, Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University; Father Bohdan Prakh, Vice President of UCU; Father Yuriy Shchurko, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology; Father Ihor Boyko, rector of the Lviv Theological Seminary, delegate of the UGCC Synod for the Care of Minors and Vulnerable Persons; experts from Poland - Father Piotr Studnicki, head of the office of the delegate of the Polish Bishops' Conference for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons, and Marta Titaniec, president of the St. Joseph Foundation of the Polish Bishops' Conference.
UCU Rector Taras Dobko addressed the guests with words of gratitude for their support and cooperation: “In Ukraine, we are going through the hardships of war, and this is a very difficult time - war destroys lives. Of course, all people suffer, but children are the most vulnerable. It is important that there are centers that are spaces of faith, hope and security. The church is one of them. It can be a leader in restoring human dignity through policies that create an environment of safety in the church.”
Later, the Dzyga Art Center hosted a presentation of the international project “SAFEGUARDING. Child Safety in the Church Environment.” With the participation of partners from Poland, who were joined online by Maryna Šiaković, a theologian, expert on the protection of minors and vulnerable persons from violence, former secretary of the Croatian Bishops' Conference Commission for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons; member of the Council of Laity of the Bishops' Conference in Croatia, one of the co-authors of the course. As well as Khrystyna Shabat, head of the UCU Center for the Dignity of the Child, and Ivanka Rudakevych, head of projects and programs at the Center. The participants of the presentation spoke about their experience of working on the project, the challenges in creating it, and further implementation plans.
Marta Titaniec, President of the St. Joseph Foundation of the Polish Bishops' Conference, emphasized the importance of cooperation with the Center for Child Dignity at the Ukrainian Catholic University: “This is an important cooperation for us, especially in times of war, when there is more violence around than in peacetime, and the most vulnerable, including children, suffer from it. So we have been working on this course to show that the safety of children is a shared responsibility across borders and we have a common Eastern European context to understand.”
Father Piotr Studnicki, Head of the Bureau of the Delegate of the Polish Bishops' Conference, said: “Children are one of the greatest treasures on earth and we must do everything in our power to protect them from evil by creating a safe environment. The church, parents, and all adults around them should contribute to this.”
“The value of the project is that we have teamed up with experts from Eastern Europe and have a common voice and a similar context in addressing the problem of child abuse. And the use of art to visually represent complex topics allowed us not only to convey the material qualitatively but also to create a kind of therapeutic effect through symbolism and drawing,” says Ivanka Rudakevych, head of projects and programs at the UCU Center for the Dignity of the Child, co-author of the course.
Authors from five other countries besides Ukraine contributed to the course, namely:
Marina Šijaković, theologian, expert in safeguarding, member of the Council of Laity of the Bishops' Conference in Croatia, former secretary of the Commission of the Bishops' Conference of Croatia for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons.
Sister Judith Szentes, pedagogical expert in the field of protection of minors, responsible for Catholic education in Hungary
Sister Agnieszka Eva Jarkowska, expert in safeguarding who organizes courses and conducts formations on the protection of minors for monks, clergy, lay people and works with victims of violence in Slovakia.
Father Marek O'Pryam, expert in safeguarding who accompanies victims of clergy sexual abuse, gives lectures on the protection of minors in the Czech Republic.
Marta Dalgiewicz, coordinator of internal and external communication projects at the Office of the Delegate of the Polish Bishops' Conference for the Protection of Children and Youth.
Ulyana Krekhovets, artist, iconographer, head of projects and programs of the UCU Development Department's artistic direction, author of the visual component of the project, says that she created the entire course using the sketch technique: quick lines and spots without further correction. She used two colors: green, the color of life, and orange, the color of safety.
“The questions raised by the course are shown in symbols to reinforce the text of the course, or vice versa, so that the text explains a naive drawing. For example, the heart is love, care, fullness of the soul, and when it is crossed out and surrounded by deep shadows, there is no love, sincerity and trust, then there is danger,” the artist noted.
On April 21, Ulyana Krekhovets held a curatorial tour of the exhibition “Recognize. React” exhibition. She told the visitors more about the work on the project, the concept, meanings, and implementation.
In the near future, the organizers plan to present the project in each of the participating countries.
The course “SAFEGUARDING. Child Safety in the Church Environment”can be taken on UCU's online platform.
Photo by Vitaliy Grabar