Antidepressants from Yurko: Sewing adaptive clothing for injured soldiers in Frankivsk
The Bukvica workshop in Ivano-Frankivsk, together with the Framiore team, the Stetsyk family, and the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Clinical Hospital, launched a joint project named Antidepressants from Yurko. For every T-shirt sold, one set of “adaptive clothing” is made for injured soldiers undergoing treatment at the Oblast Clinical Hospital and other rehabilitation centers in Ukraine. We would like to tell you about the deeper meaning of the project and the first results of the work.
Yurii Stetsyk, the son of Yarema and Nataliia Stetsyk, aged 23, stood up to defend Ukraine from the first days of the full-scale war. In his civilian life, he pursued art and music, organized festivals, and designed interiors with his father. Before the full-scale invasion, he worked at the Bukvica silk-screen printing workshop.
Yurko became one of the investors in the Promprylad.Renovation project, explaining his decision by saying that “Promprylad nourished him with very cool events, people, work, and opportunities for realization. And I wanted to be physically involved in the implementation of this project.”
In December 2022, Yurko went missing while carrying out a combat mission in Zaporizhzhia region. Since then, the young man’s family and friends have been dedicating charitable projects to him, one of which is Antidepressants from Yurko.
As part of the initiative, Bukvica produces designer T-shirts with Yurko’s portrait and a life-affirming quote taken from his notebook: “Люди вилазять із густішого” (“People emerge even from the thick of it”).
“This short phrase contains both the feeling of a black hole and the certainty that it is possible and necessary to get out of it. It’s exactly what you need when you don’t even see the point of looking for any sense. Because we all really need to know that people emerge even from the thick of it,” says Nataliia Stetsyk, Yurko’s mother.
There are two ways to buy Antidepressants from Yurko:
- pre-order by filling out a form at:
https://forms.gle/L7WwKiazoPMQFYNU6
- buy a T-shirt at Promprylad in the Framiore workshop (23 Ukrainskoi Peremohy Str., Building C)
In total, there are T-shirts in three designs, three sizes, and in four colors. Yurii Koreniuk, a friend of Yurko Stetsyk, created the layouts for the stencils. Together, they were members of the Triasovyna music band. Each print is unique; moreover, they glow in the dark under ultraviolet light.
The cost of one item is UAH 1,000. The international brand Framiore, which is a resident of Promprylad, uses the proceeds from the sale of the T-shirts to sew “adaptive clothing” for injured soldiers. These are T-shirts and shorts with Velcro and additional zippers that can be easily transformed to meet the needs of the soldiers during the rehabilitation period. For example, if an injured soldier is treated using an Ilizarov apparatus.
“Since the beginning of the war, almost 4,000 soldiers have been treated in our hospital. As of today, about two hundred military personnel are undergoing treatment. For many of them, our facility serves as a home for several months, as severe injuries require long-term treatment. Therefore, feeling comfortable and looking as decent as possible is a daily need for the military. And a great challenge.
We appreciate Bukvica’s offer of cooperation and it is heartening to see the growing number of people who respond to the needs of the institution and help the soldiers,” according to the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Clinical Hospital.
According to Bukvica, in the first week after the project’s launch, they managed to raise UAH 127k, of which UAH 47k were charitable contributions to the Monobank account. They also received the first orders from the Trauma and Burn Departments of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Clinical Hospital for 110 pieces of clothing. They will be sewn and delivered to the hospital next week.
If you’re not interested in a T-shirt, you can support the project at: https://send.monobank.ua/jar/oMBVrqq6d
Natalka Naida, Framiore’s founder, says that the company will continue to make dedicated clothes for injured soldiers as long as there is a need for that.
“Along with pre-orders for T-shirts, people write messages and well-wishes. We print out these letters and send them along with the clothes to the hospitals to the military. You can buy T-shirts at Framiore’s shop or pre-order them by choosing the size, color, and design.
Live, encourage others to live, and don’t forget: “People emerge even from the thick of it!”
It is interesting that Yurko’s grandfather and artist, Mykhailo Stetsyk, worked at the Promprylad plant in the 1970s. At the same time, he created the bas-relief Technical Progress in Prykarpattia (1978), which still adorns the wall of one of the plant’s buildings. In 2019, Yurko Stetsyk himself helped to reconstruct the bas-relief.
