Anatoliy, a veteran, had no experience in working with drones before joining the project. He served in the marines, where he received an injury that led to amputation of both lower limbs. Now, during his recovery at a rehabilitation center in Kyiv region, the drones have become a new source of inspiration for him:

“The best impressions! I’m interested in this sphere, and here I had the chance to learn piloting and assembly alongside my rehabilitation. It would have been a sin not to take advantage of this opportunity,” he says.

Another participant, call sign Morgan, who had also never worked with drones, was a grenade launcher in the army. Now, he finds the sphere of unmanned technologies very promising:

“Any chance to get better and more professional lifts my mood and provides motivation,” he says, adding that he plans to continue advancing in this sphere.

However, not all participants are strongly motivated or have serious plans: “Some [patients] attend lessons just to have some good time, to distract themselves from medical procedures, to socialize, and that’s completely okay. But there are also those who really want to learn, who want to succeed in this field and make it their specialization,” says one of the instructors.

The project team believes that whatever the participants’ future goals are, the main goal of the project is already being achieved – to give veterans the chance to improve their emotional state during rehabilitation and to help them recover faster!

This project is supported by the “Ukraine Rapid Response Fund” program implemented by IREX with the support of the U.S. Department of State.