Newsletter April 2008

Dear friends:

While working on an issue of our newsletter we often face one problem. We tell you about various events in the life of Children's Hospice and about actions which we arrange for our patients. However one interesting thing always remains off screen. How can we transmit that atmosphere of pondering and arguments, of humor and encouragement, which accompanies us each working day and even on holiday? Many of our patients become isolated due to their diseases. They do not await anything good any more neither from life nor from other people. We try to change their attitude towards life and to show them that one can live a fruitful, interesting and bright life even with a serious illness, and that there are people ready to help and to support them.

We are delighted to read comments of our volunteers like: «Helping children and elderly people is NATURAL». These people are no longer surprised to see a child in a wheelchair in a fashionable shopping center. They won’t be embarrassed in front of an “invalid” not knowing what to say, like many people in Russia unfortunately still do. Thanks to our volunteers we are able to arrange plenty of interesting activities every month to make the dreams of our children come true and to do many other things for Hospice patients.

Our children and their parents received great pleasure in visiting an exhibition of Russian painter Sergey Andriyaka. Children attended his master-classes in water-color painting, in engraving, and in drawing by chocolate. With such great pride our young painters showed us their own hand-painted chocolate bars!

In April a long-awaited excursion to the Zoological museum took place. Together with the guide our children made a virtual trip to different corners of our planet and learned about its inhabitants.

Within a TASIC program «Open World» three employees of Children's Hospice visited the United States. They learned how medical and social help is rendered to people in need in America and got acquainted with various forms of raising funds for charitable purposes. In addition, they visited a children's hospital and met their American colleagues. We hope that these acquaintances will grow into a fruitful cooperation and joint projects between children's hospices in Russia and America. It was certainly very interesting to live in American families and to see the legendary Rocky Mountains.

On the 26th of April our patient Yura Y. was presented with a flight by helicopter. The weather turned out to be uncommonly warm and serene; therefore the boy could enjoy the excursion in full measure. Yura was in rapture! After the flight our volunteers accompanying Yura brought the boy to the Gulf of Finland where Yura had not been for more than two years. Then they took a drive through St. Petersburg city. A serious disease and an operation left not much place for joy in Yura’s life. Our cordial thanks to all the people who found time for the sick boy and made such a large gift for him!

In April our fancier of martial arts could attend mixed fight finals in St. Petersburg. Both children and adults received plenty of impressions and much pleasure. We enjoyed a special service: our teenagers and employees sat in separate places next to the ring. On the walls of the sports palace information about our project Make Dreams Come True was placed. We felt not just spectators but guests of honor! After the program sportsmen talked with children very warmly, gave autographs and were photographed with children for good memory.

We’re waiting impatiently for the construction of our own Hospice facility to be finished. Our patient Victoria V. is in an extremely severe condition now. Once again we are faced with the problem that we can’t hospitalize a terminal patient with an oncological disease suffering from a strong pain syndrome in our own therapy station but only in public hospitals. Our doctors and psychologists regularly monitor condition of the girl and of her family, adjusting therapy and rendering psychological support. Our system of public health services and social protection is imperfect but we can compensate for these lacks through our joint efforts.

In this issue of our bulletin we’d like to tell you about Ms. Inna Glushkova, the coordinator of one of our major projects «Dreams Come True». There are many duties on Inna's shoulders. She is our «Santa Claus». Inna knows well the dreams of each child, what gifts we should choose for a birthday, and – very important – how these gifts may be obtained.

At present Inna has one even more important task. Our project «Dreams Come True» starts to work outside St. Petersburg and Leningrad region. We want that treasured dreams of seriously sick
children living in other cities would also be fulfilled. For this purpose we worked out and launched the website www.iwish.info as the beginning of an over regional project “Dreams Come True”.

We have shared our small successes and achievements with you and told about things which our employees face every day. We hope what you have read touches your heart and soul. Please share this feeling with your friends, send this newsletter to some of them. If any questions arise, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Yours faithfully,

Fr. Alexander Tkachenko, Children’s Hospice, April 2008.