After completing the refurbishment of the play room we have built a new entrance and a waiting room in the same children's hospital.
The old entrance was badly dilapidated and got almost completely separated from the main building structure. Combined with the crumbling steps it was a dangerous challenge to enter the hospital. Furthermore there was no waiting room or a communal room for parents and children to sit together. Together with the hospital management we have changed that situation.
The opening ceremony on November 22nd 2008, was accomplished by the deputy mayor of Krasnoarmeisk, the hospital director and by Breath Care For Kids chairman Nico De Borst. This was another step to reaching Breath Care for Kids' goal of improving the children's hospital up to a full fledged institution.
The Medfar Company from Pynacker, The Netherlands gifted the hospital an orthoscope, which was gladly accepted by the paediatrician in resident. Nico De Borst received a Diploma of the City of Krasnoarmeisk from the deputy mayor as an acknowledgement of all the efforts to support the local hospital. Ukrainian television recorded it all an in an interview with the broadcaster Nico De Borst deliberated on the plans of refurbishing the hospital step by step and to equip is with the necessary equipment and machines.
In Krasnoarmeisk, a city about 60 kilometres west of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, we first visited the local children's hospital back in March 2007. This hospital has a lot of issues. The building is dilapidated and it is lacking the necessities of a proper functioning hospital. Breath Care for Kids is working to change this together with the hospital management. Step by step we want to make improvements to the hospital.
Firstly we have realised a play room for the children, as requested by the hospital management. It was bedly needed for the children who spend long spells inside the hospital because they have been left on the street. Usually there are no legal records or documents of these children en nobody knows their names let alone their ages. This means basically that these children do not exist in Ukraine.
This play room was opened late 2007 and has become a success thanks to support from the Wilde Ganzen (Wild Geese charity) and a spontaneous fundraiser by the staff of PriceWaterhouse Coopers.