On 26 October 2019, the joint team of detdom.info volunteers, United World Cultures Foundation, and students of Medical Faculty 3 of Pediatrics Department of Bogomolets National Medical University made our next visit to young patients of Communal Institution Puhachiv Psychoneurological Treatment and Residential Care Center – a facility located in Berezneve village of Korosten District in Zhytomyr Region, that takes care of children suffering from mental retardation at the imbecility stage and Down syndrome of disability groups IІІ-ІV.
The journey was pretty fast. Right at the entrance, the girls were already waiting for our arrival. We had the following plans: bring in the boxes of rice-based fortified meal formula Manna Pack donated by UWCF, peel a box of bananas for the girls, give them presents and hugs, play with them, look around the center’s premises to see how patients live there, and talk to the management.
We brought a lot of arts and crafts sets for the children. Some girls opened their sets right away and started sketching and colouring all pictures.
“I have been most impressed by one patient who has a wonderful surname Soniachna (“sunny” in Ukrainian) – this girl indeed shines like a little sun. Honestly speaking, that was the moment that I was most afraid of… The patient was closed for communication, she was just staring into the window and ingoring everyone’s presence. I sat down next to her and tried to start a conversation but this attempt failed, so I took a piece of paper and asked the girl to draw something – only to be refused again. I decided to follow my heart and drew the sun and some clouds. And lo and behold, my “sunny” friend responded! We had an eye contact, and a second later my hand was holding the hand of that little girl who became so dear to me … No matter how hard that was, she managed to overcome all the barriers and reach out to me like those sun rays reach through clouds”, shares Myroslava, student of Medical Faculty 3 of Pediatrics Department of Bogomolets National Medical University.
We are really happy that the number of people helping with this cause was again so high. There was a large number of things and presents that we brought that day, and the kids appreciated – they couldn’t stop hugging and smiling. We also brought some new things donated by Volodymyr and Hanna Miachyn from Kyiv to birthday girls of Puhachiv Psychoneurological Treatment and Residential Care Center and those gifts made the young celebrants happy and grateful.
Every visit to our little friends gives us a flood of warm emotions. These kids deserve the best things in the world as they are deprived of the most valuable ones – their parents.
