To help those who are in need. BLOG by Rimma Fil
There was the time in my pre-war life, when I thought that those who are engaged in the targeted assistance of the Foundation are highly integrous people, because it is very hard to be compassionate for people with serious illnesses, asking for help, 24/7. So hard!
Then I could not imagine that there would be a time when we would read and hear thousands of other requests for help together: requests to save the wounded children, to help with the treatment of the most complex diseases and purchasing medications.
As it turned out, people with delicate psych work in the "Targeted Assistance". And they, too, burn out, suffer and cry, taking someone else's pain as their own.
The "Targeted Assistance" program has always been one of the most complex directions of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. For 12 years now, its essence has not changed - the Foundation provides assistance to those who are in need systematically and massively. Responsiveness in help providing is the main criterion of the programme. 50,000 people have received assistance recently and over 10,000 people have been treated, of which about 5,000 are children.
With the outbreak of the war, the "Targeted Assistance" programme works within the framework of the Humanitarian Center. With this, absolutely terrible things, such as injured children, have added to complicated diseases. The children needed help so urgently that in 2016 a separate direction "Rehabilitation of injured children" was launched. 80 children were rehabilitated under this programme.
The boy from Avdiivka Vladik Potin became one of the symbols of this war. It was in the same cold January of 2015. The boy went out for a walk with his grandmother. And then a terrible shelling began.
The shell splinter passed through the child’s head and got stuck in the nape, having damaged 60% of the brain.
He underwent the heaviest surgery, and spent 9 days in a coma between life and death. The doctors considered his chances for recovery to be outside. Then they predicted a severe disability. But they fought or the boy over and over. The doctors made a real miracle - the boy has not only survived, but lives a full-fledged life again.
This boy can be called the Son of the Center, as we were sincerely distressed about his fate. The girls from the "Assistance" were literally "on the phone" constantly.
When the situation was critical, the Center acquired a special device for pumping bronchial and tracheal mucus, then bought for Vladik tube feeding and an pressure relieving system, not to mention medications. After the injury, the child lacked most of the skull bones, and the brain pulse was evident: the skin on the right side of the head rose and fell. Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center bought titanium plates, and with their help doctors closed the child’s skull defect.
Vladik, as they say, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The splinter damaged the brain structures responsible for speech and the right limbs movement. After such an injury, the recovery process is very long. Sometimes it takes years. There were no guarantees that the child would ever be able to walk and talk.
But Vladik gradually began to speak. His speech and memory have recovered completely today. There is still a problem with the fine motor skills of his right hand. But he's alive and he walks and talks!
The Foundation has also helped the boy with rehabilitation - the necessary exercisers were purchased to restore the motor functions. Vladik underwent several rehabilitation courses in the best Ukrainian sanatoriums.
The case with Vladik and understanding of the importance of a systematic approach to the treatment of such children gave the Humanitarian Center an idea of launching the first Ukrainian large-scale programme "Rehabilitation of injured children".
Step by step Vladik is gradually returning to normal life - he plays football, swims and runs. Except that for the time being his working hand is left.
Now the boy is 12 years old.
In lieu of an afterword.
I am eager to say here that the peace has come, and the children do not suffer anymore, and the programme is closed due to the absence of its demand.
Alas...
Statistics is disappointing. In 2017, according to OSCE, about 500 civilians were injured (wounded and killed). According to UNICEF, 220,000 children run the risk of being wounded and killed every day, blowing up on land mines and torn by shells.
