Anastasia Gileva

Head and founder of the Perm regional non-governmental organization for protecting rights of disabled children and their families «Joy to Live»

Education: Perm National Research Pedagogical University, department of roads building; Institute of Additional Training — Regional Cross-Industry Staff Retraining Centre, department of economics; Moscow State Automobile & Road Technical University, department of roads building and maintenance; Perm National Research Pedagogical University, department of management and marketing.

Quotes

• There are no problems, there are tasks that can be solved.
• I charge from my daughter, she is inspiration of all my projects, the main motivator in my life.
• If we were just a little bit more attentive, kinder and opener to each other, there will be less aggression in the world.
• The most important thing is for children to have this happiness — life. If you live, then you are already lucky, you have to be happy whatever state you are in.
• Stop whining, start changing the world around you.

My story

Before entering university, I lived in Krasnovishersk; it is my power place, my second homeland. The first one is Perm, though; it's the only place I feel at home.

Moscow is a city for work, Saint Petersburg is for rest only, and Perm is for life; circumstances have defined my line of work here. After three years of fighting for life of our daughter Tanechka, we realized what way we had walked, and how many issues we were now experts in. And we realized we had no moral rights to be silent about it. That's how organization «Joy to Live» was born. There are now four main directions and 16 inner projects we are working on. Currently my most favourite is «School of Special Knowledge».

It was born five years ago, and, of course, it was inspired by my daughter. I saw children working from the early morning until late night: constant rehabilitation, doctors, injections, checkups. Let's not forget there is also pain and medicine they are taking, believe me, there is very little fun in that. When we realized child should not live without smiles and laughter, we made up this project. We started with children meeting painters, with simple common activities. The idea was to show their abilities and help to discover them. Our wings were growing big when we saw how canine therapy worked out. It became obvious: we, as parents, put those additional limits in lives of our children, and we don't need those limits, they only exist in our heads and have nothing to do with reality.

We help children to acquire skills they never had, which then become part of their routine. Every mother would understand how fantastic it is.

You can improve everything. You just have to understand what you want from life, and then talk about it, and do it. I am often told off for being «driving force», but I guess it is because I always move forward — no matter what.

Our team consists of professionals, we teach even our volunteers. Yes, we still have no office, but we have many partners and associates. We realize it crystal clear that it is them who give us amazingly broad opportunities. It is important that all our programs are free; it makes rehabilitation available for everybody. The goal we want to meet in each of our projects is smile without pain.