A House Made of Splinters Discussion Guide

Near the frontlines in Eastern Ukraine, a safe haven provides refuge for children who have been temporarily separated from their parents. A House Made of Splinters chronicles three displaced kids who, despite the perils surrounding them, find moments of joy and friendship, with the aid of dedicated social workers who work tirelessly to protect them from harm.

This guide is an invitation to dialogue. It is based on a belief in the power of human connection and designed for people who want to use A House Made of Splinters to engage family, friends, classmates, colleagues, and communities. In contrast to initiatives that foster debates in which participants try to convince others that they are right, this document envisions conversations undertaken in a spirit of openness in which people try to understand one another and expand their thinking by sharing experiences and viewpoints and actively listening to one another in a care-forward environment.

The discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the issues in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose one or two that best meet your needs and interests. And be sure to leave time to consider taking action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and optimistic, even in instances when conversations have been difficult.

For more detailed event planning and facilitation tips, visit https://communitynetwork.amdoc.org/.

This guide was created through collaborative efforts of Voices of Children (Olena Rozvadovska and Azad Safarov) and the POV Education Team (Courtney B. Cook, PhD and Jordan Thomas).

Emergence of the Voices of Children Charitable Foundation, with its many initiatives and a large team, was unplanned, but absolutely logical if you look at the stories of its co-founders.

From the very beginning of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine in 2014, Olena Rozvadovska spent a lot of time in Donbas, providing humanitarian aid to local residents, convincing them to evacuate, and looking for opportunities to rehabilitate injured children.

Rozvadovska worked with people directly, spending her own reserves and organizing fundraising to help children. Later, international initiatives began to contact her because they needed help writing reports from the scene and consulting on the areas with the greatest need for charitable funds.

Azad Safarov was a documentary filmmaker who traveled to the east of Ukraine to make a film about the war. There he met Rozvadovska, and they began to work together on the film A House Made of Splinters about children from a destroyed orphanage whose destinies changed in an instant.

Safarov and Rozvadovska wanted not only to spread the word about the war in Ukraine and abroad, but also to collect targeted aid for these children, so they created their foundation in 2019. This is how Voices of Children began.

THANKS TO THOSE WHO REVIEWED THIS GUIDE:
Natalie Danford, Copyeditor