March 18, 2014. Five young men with disabilities from Yekaterinburg, Perm, Syktyvkar, and Kirov were able to go to Russia’s first Paralympics in Sochi this winter: this trip was the first prize in the I Am a Leader Contest that was coordinated by MegaFon, the general sponsor of the winter Paralympics in Sochi, the company’s press service says.

‘I Am a Leader Contest that was organized by MegaFon and Perspective (an NGO for people with disabilities) was directed to singling out leaders among people with disabilities throughout Russia. The contest aims to draw the society’s attention to problems these people face and to show that they can still lead an active lifestyle if the right conditions are created for them. 136 people with disabilities from 25 Russian cities took part in the contest, and five contestants from the Urals won in it. Every winner has their own unique story about how there is no limit to a human’s potential,’ the company press release says.


Two contest winners live in Sverdlovsk Region: Vladimir Vaskevitch (who won in the I Am the Society Leader category) and Ksenia Kaminskaya (who won in the I Am the School Leader category). Vaskevitch is a student at Ural Federal University and is employed at White Cane, an NGO for self-reliant people with disabilities whose mission is to inspire people both with and without disabilities to become independent, successful, and useful.