Let's help blind children refugees from Ukraine

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Dear friends,

We would like to thank everyone who supports the project to support families of Ukrainian children with complex developmental disorders.

Russia's military aggression has significantly worsened the situation of such families. Some of the families who were able to evacuate from places of active hostilities to European countries are gradually integrating into local communities and receiving emergency assistance. But the language barrier and the slow process of processing the necessary documents to receive therapeutic assistance from specialists set such children back in their development. In addition, the children have experienced psychological traumas related to shelling, evacuation difficulties, and parental stress. Children who continue to stay in Ukraine cannot receive the necessary support due to the lack of specialists, power outages, and increased shelling. The situation in Kharkiv and Kharkiv region is particularly aggravated. That is why it is so important to give such families the support of specialists. To give the necessary knowledge for the development and upbringing of their children in such extreme conditions as war. Knowledge that will help them to cope with difficulties and not to let their children stop developing. This was the main goal of our project "Ukrainian children in the palms of art".

More than 30 project participants gathered in the beautiful place Pavlova Banya in Bulgaria. An international team of specialists: typhlopedagogues, speech therapists, psychologists, physical rehabilitation therapists, spatial orientation instructor, and an art therapist worked with children and mothers in the first half of the day.

In the afternoon the mothers had an opportunity to get psychological support, rest, socialize and support their physical health. The 10 days of the project were filled with acceptance and love for children, positive emotions, excursions to interesting places in Bulgaria. Children drew, sculpted, sang, listened to music. The walks and games with our wonderful volunteers will be remembered for a long time. We observed how the faces of our kids changed during the project. How they turned from little prickly hedgehogs into cheerful, agile varmints.

Parents wrote in their feedback about the project: "It was awesome!", "Fantastic project!", "I am glad I could spend time with you and learn a lot from everyone. Thank you for your care and sensitivity, for relaxation and a lot of laughter", "Deep appreciation and gratitude for your guidance, for sharing your valuable experience so generously!", "You embrace our children with your love, care, patience and they blossom!  You believe in them and they succeed! Thank you for your labor and for your inexhaustible kindness!"

https://t.me/+0zoBilwwiudiZDcy

Dear friends!

We are very grateful to you for supporting our projects in a terrible time for Ukraine. And we already have several of them. There are a lot of problems in our country now. Volunteers and public organizations have a lot of responsibility and a lot of work.  But we are not complaining.

Your support gives us strength and resources for further full-fledged work of our center for children and youth with disabilities. We not only support blind people in Ukraine, but also help those who have found temporary protection in European countries.

What we have done during the reporting period.

In Kharkiv, the Humanitarian Aid Headquarters continues to work in our center. We support people with disabilities, distribute food, hygiene products. We make camouflage nets for our military. With the help of our partners, we help those who decided to leave Kharkiv. We are looking for places of temporary protection for them.

 In Bremen there is a Resource Room for Ukrainian children, where children meet 2 times a week to play, socialize, listen to stories in their native language. Preschoolers attend school preparation classes in their native language. They like to come to the Resource Center very much. Mothers receive psychological support at this time. More than 40 families attended our events for the feast of St. Nicholas. Children got a lot of joy, learned how to make gingerbread houses and cards.

With the support of GlobalGiving we continue our online project International School of Parenting "Parent Universities" for families raising children with severe developmental disabilities. Every week on Saturdays we discuss important issues in raising blind children.

And of course we want our children to have holidays and games.

We want them to grow up happy and not lag behind in development, to forget about the horrors of war at least for a while.

Winter holidays are a time of joy and goodness, and everyone, despite the restrictions, has the right to access to these magical holidays.

 On the eve of the New Year and Christmas holidays, when one wants so much to believe in miracles, it is very pleasant to read a book dedicated to the theme of Christmas, Holy Evening or New Year.

Children have a special attitude to these holidays, because little mischievous children associate the Christmas season first of all with presents.

During the reporting period, we are actively engaged in adapting for blind children Christmas fairy tales by authors from different countries and send free gift sets.

The collection includes adapted sets for creativity "Giving Christmas".

Our goal is to give children unforgettable moments of Christmas celebration.

Our team created and distributed sets of Christmas fairy tales in universal design format for more than 100 children with visual impairment, 20 libraries and institutions for children with visual impairment throughout Ukraine and for children who found protection in European countries.

• A_letter_from_a_mother.docx (DOCX)