The Zelena Dibrova Centre for Medical Rehabilitation and Palliative Care for Children, a municipal non-profit institution of Kharkiv Regional Council, is located in Vysokyi, Kharkiv District, approximately 40 km from Kharkiv.
During active hostilities, the Centre did not evacuate or suspend its work. The team stayed and continued caring for children with disabilities, children without parents and children in the most serious conditions. Shelling, power cuts, resource shortages and difficult logistics did not stop the institution’s work.
Today, Zelena Dibrova operates as a day hospital, providing comprehensive rehabilitation for children with nervous system conditions, musculoskeletal disorders, congenital and acquired developmental conditions, and the effects of injuries and surgery, as well as other conditions requiring restoration of function and improvements in quality of life.
Its multidisciplinary team includes specialists in physical and rehabilitation medicine, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, speech therapists and other professionals. Children can receive physiotherapy, occupational therapy, therapeutic exercise, massage, speech and psychological support, and singlet oxygen therapy.
Since the beginning of 2026 alone, 136 children have received rehabilitation at the Centre. The institution is also working to expand its capacity to 30 places at a time.
Accessibility is particularly important for an institution like this. When a child comes for rehabilitation, the family should be able to focus on treatment, recovery and results. Moving through the building should not become another ordeal.
Work that has already made a difference
AMI has already worked with Zelena Dibrova.
In an earlier project supported by UNDP, six rooms were renovated, a corridor was refurbished, a sanitary facility was adapted, and specialised furniture and equipment were purchased for children.
The six rooms received 30 specialised children’s beds with orthopaedic mattresses and 30 beds for accompanying adults. The space also gained bedside cabinets, changing units, feeding tables, germicidal air recirculators, children’s swings, air conditioners and backup power supplies.
As a result, the rooms were adapted to accommodate 30 children and 30 adults at the same time.
A room for young children and an occupational therapy space were also created, helping children develop self-care skills, sensory integration, movement coordination and the skills they need for everyday life.
With support from Helvetas, AMI also worked on developing a sensory space at the Centre.
These recent projects therefore improved the very rooms where children stay, recover, learn new skills and receive care.
But one crucial question remained after the previous phase: how accessible is the route to those rooms?
29 critical barriers
An assessment identified 29 critical barriers along the route from the entrance to the functional rooms.
These findings should not be interpreted as an assessment of the Centre’s current management. Many of the problems arose long before the present team, when the building was first constructed and its layout designed.
Many healthcare, education and social service buildings constructed decades ago face similar challenges. Universal design was not a systematic requirement at the time, so adapting these buildings now is complex.
For a family raising a child with a disability, a physical barrier at the institution they visit for care creates yet another challenge: a threshold, an awkward door, insufficient manoeuvring space, unclear navigation or a bathroom that is difficult to access.
Each detail may seem minor in isolation. For a wheelchair user, a child with a musculoskeletal condition or an accompanying parent, these barriers together determine how independently and safely they can use the institution.
An old building cannot start from a blank page
Adapting an existing building is always more complex than designing a new one.
Corridors have fixed widths. Doors are already installed. Utility networks follow established routes. Changes in floor level were created years ago. Structural constraints limit the room layout.
Accessibility work therefore requires more than transferring individual regulatory measurements into drawings. It requires a detailed analysis of the particular building and how people use it.
We need to understand the entire route: where someone can stop, whether they can turn, open a door, find the right room, use the bathroom and continue independently.
In the new project, we are working with an accessibility expert, drawing on the findings of a measured assessment and developing layout solutions for this specific building. The work takes account of Ukrainian building standard DBN V.2.2-40:2018 and the principles of universal design.
Combining regulatory requirements, the building’s technical possibilities and the actual needs of its daily users is particularly important.
A new phase of work
The new project, “Zelena Dibrova Care Space: An Inclusive Environment for Children 2.0”, aims to create an accessible route from the entrance to two functional areas.
At the entrance, planned work includes adjusting ramps to the required gradient, installing handrails at three heights, removing thresholds, adapting doorways and adding tactile and contrasting markings.
The lobby and corridor will have even lighting, tactile markings and accessible wayfinding. A tactile orientation map will be installed near the entrance, and signs will include Braille.
A separate part of the work concerns two sanitary facilities. Plans include changes to the layout, wider doorways, manoeuvring spaces at least 1.50 m in diameter, accessible showers and washbasin areas, handrails, emergency call buttons with two-way voice communication, non-slip flooring and other necessary features.
We are also paying particular attention to the Centre’s staff. At least 15 people will receive training on accessible environments, communicating with people with reduced mobility and safely using the installed equipment.
A partnership that makes continued work possible
For AMI, continuing our cooperation with UNDP at Zelena Dibrova is especially valuable.
The previous project allowed us to learn about the site, get to know the Centre’s team, examine the building’s technical characteristics and understand the needs of the people using its services.
We can now build on that experience and continue the work.
We particularly value professional communication with UNDP’s partner team. Preparing the project raises many questions that need joint discussion: how to adapt solutions to this building, how to reconcile regulatory requirements with its technical possibilities, and which changes will deliver the greatest practical benefit.
Openness to questions, reasoned discussion and professional dialogue matters in this work. It is through this cooperation that assessment findings become concrete solutions for the space.
We thank UNDP for continuing the partnership, supporting this new phase and maintaining the professional dialogue that allows us to find solutions together for a complex, real-world building.
It matters to us that work at Zelena Dibrova continues. Change in institutions like this rarely happens through a single project. It requires sustained work, technical expertise, an understanding of the institution’s needs and partners willing to invest in results.
Today, we are working to ensure that people can travel from the entrance to the room where they receive care without unnecessary physical obstacles.
For a family arriving with a child, the change may seem simple: enter the building, move along the corridor, find the right room, use the bathroom and receive care.
Behind each of these simple actions lies extensive technical work, assessment, design, expert decisions and the daily cooperation of people working towards the same result.
This is the kind of space we continue to create at Zelena Dibrova.
