Lesson Plans

Ukraine's Internally Displaced

Aleksei Morozov undergoes an IV treatment in a military hospital in Kiev for a head injury he sustained in battle two years ago. Morozov, who is HIV ­positive, joined a volunteer battalion and was later held prisoner in Eastern Ukraine. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016.

Yana, 40 (left) with her social worker Olga. Yana has recently been released from prison and Olga helps Yana readjust to the everyday life. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016.

Alla and her son in an apartment rented by a local NGO that helps IDPs with drug problems. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016

Georgiy Gaidamaka left his native Simferopol, in Crimea, after the Russian government said it would end the methadone­ substitution therapy he’d relied on to treat his heroin addiction. Now he lives in Kiev, where he builds amplifiers from old Soviet equipment. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016.

Sveta is reunited with her husband Aleksei after he spent months as POW of a separatist group. He hid his HIV status from his captors while Sveta managed to sneak his meds to him. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2014.

Tatiana, 33, with her three children. She contracted HIV from her husband who was a drug user and died from AIDS in January 2016. They had to flee the war during heavy fighting and right now she lives in Kramatorsk, supported solely by NGOs and church groups. She is unable to work as she is the only caregiver for her kids. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016

Alla walks home in Kramatorsk after receiving her daily dose of metadone, a substitution therapy made largely unavailable by separatists in eastern Ukraine. She fled her home just outside of Donetsk and is now living as an IDP with her son. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016.

Olga, a social worker listens to Taras, Yana's boyfriend, talk about post-dependency challenges as he and Yana try to adjust to normal life in Mariupol. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016

Irina, 28, (left) fled the war from Enakievo, a town now under separatist control in eastern Ukraine. She is an intravenous drug user and receives substitution therapy which was made illegal by separatists. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016.

Yana, 40 (left) with her social worker Olga. Yana has recently been released from prison and Olga helps Yana readjust to the everyday life. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016

Victoria, 48, is a social worker for women with HIV in Kramatorsk. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016.

Coming clean after two decades of drug use, Polina is now a social worker for women with HIV in Mariupol. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016

Tatiana, 33, with her three children She contracted HIV from her husband who was a drug user and died from AIDS in January 2016. They had to flee the war during heavy fighting and right now she lives in Kramatorsk, supported solely by NGOs and church groups. She is unable to work as she is the only caregiver for her kids. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016.

Olga has known about her HIV status for almost 20 years. She was a very active social worker helping young women in her hometown Donetsk. She openly opposed the separatist regime and had to flee Donbass leaving all of her possessions behind. Her apartment is now occupied by separatists. She is now in Odessa and has had a hard time adjusting to living in temporary shelters and has attempted suicide. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016.

Tatiana, 33, visiting the grave of her husband who died of AIDS in January 2016. Image by Misha Friedman. Ukraine, 2016.

Common Core Standard:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.7: Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.

Objective:

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to analyze how the journalists emphasize details differently using various mediums (e.g. text, radio, photographs) to tell different accounts of Ukraine's internally displaced persons.

Introducing the Lesson:

In this lesson, you will analyze three resources from journalists Misha Friedman and Julia Barton's Pulitzer Center-sponsored project "Ukraine's Internally Displaced, Two Years On." In the first resource, "For Ukrainians Displaced by Conflict, There's No Going Back," Julia Barton discusses life in Kiev for Ukraine's Internally Displaced Persons or IDPs. In the second resource, "Stigma, Discrimination, Violence: Ukraine's Internally Displaced with HIV," Misha Friedman looks at specific women and their struggles to reenter a normal life after being forced from their homes. In the last resource, "Ukraine: Women Living with HIV," Friedman describes life for Ukrainian women and children living with HIV.

Warm-up:

Imagine war is encroaching on your home town. You and your family must flee the area immediately. You only have time to take three items from your house. In groups of four, write which three items from the list below you choose to take and why.

  1. Food and water
  2. Medicine
  3. Pets
  4. Family photographs
  5. Electronics
  6. Important documents (passports, bank statements, visas, etc.)
  7. Money
  8. Clothing

Introducing the Resources:

Explore the resources attached. After examining each resource, write your responses to the corresponding questions. After reviewing all three resources, write your responses to the the comprehension questions below.

  1. How might being HIV-positive affect your decision regarding the items you choose to take with you as you flee? As an HIV-positive patient, would your answer from the warm up change? How so?
  2. What are the different responses the various mediums (text, photographs, radio) provoke when telling the story of Ukrainian IDPs? Which do you think is most powerful and why?

Extension Activity:

Is the Ukrainian government responsible for giving HIV-positive IDPs special treatment regarding their needs due to their medical histories? Write a short essay explaining why or why not. Be sure to include examples from the Pulitzer Center resources.

Educator Notes: 

In the following lesson plan, which is in line with common core standards, students will investigate educational resources in order to understand how different mediums can provoke various emotions in an audience. Lesson facilitation notes: 1) The lesson plan is written for students to be able to explore the resources independently and reflection exercises independently. 2) Students may need to have an extra sheet of paper, or a blank online document open, to answer the warm up, comprehension and extension questions. 3) The lesson lists an extension exercise. 4) The warm up and post-reading reflections in this lesson could also lead to rich conversations. If you are working through the lesson along with the students and would like to denote moments for interactive activities, click on "Modify this Lesson" to make changes to the student instructions. 5) This lesson can be sent to students electronically by clicking "share" once it is published. From the electronic lessons, students can access the Pulitzer Center reporting by clicking on the links under "Resources". When printing the lesson, the text from the resources will print after the student instructions. 6) With questions about this lesson, contact [email protected]

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