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18 June 2009 14:23

Kateryna Yushchenko Visits Chernivtsi Oblast Medical and Social Rehabilitation Center for Children with Organic Lesions of Nervous System

June 18, 2009, Head of the Supervisory Board of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation Kateryna Yushchenko visited Chernivtsi Oblast Medical and Social Rehabilitation Center for Children with Organic Lesions of Nervous System.

Accompanied by the Center’s director Larysa Palamar, Mrs. Yushchenko toured its premises, visiting ergotherapy, walk correction, hydrokinetic therapy, speleotherapy, sensor integration, Montessori therapy rooms and computer class. Mrs. Catheryna also visited the physical rehabilitation room with standing systems, donated by Ukraine 3000 Foundation within the framework of the Joy of the Childhood – Free Movements program, and familiarized herself with their operation.

After that the Center’s wards presented a small concert program. Dr. Palamar described the work of this Ukraine’s first center offering medical and social rehabilitation to children with organic lesions of nervous system.

“Ukraine will become a civilized country only when all her children have equal opportunities to study, get medical assistance and access to cultural heritage,” Mrs. Yushchenko said. She was satisfied with the fact that recently there has been a considerable improvement in this field. “I started to study cerebral palsy in 1995 and since then have visited many specialized centers, schools, and boarding schools,” she said. “However, what I see here in Chernivtsi should become a model for the whole Ukraine.”

Mrs. Yushchenko described the Joy of the Childhood – Free Movements program aimed at helping children with cerebral palsy. She spoke in more detail about the grant competition for institutions rendering services to children with cerebral palsy, within whose framework 54 specialized centers have received financial aid to the total of over 1.5 million hryvnias.

Kateryna Yushchenko gave a special mention to the fact that many wards of the Chernivtsi Oblast Medical and Social Rehabilitation Center for Children with Organic Lesions of Nervous System study at ordinary schools. “This is the best way for these children’s integration into the society,” she said. “This will help them become full-fledge citizens, being of use to their country.”

On behalf of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation, Mrs. Yushchenko presented the Center’s wards with books and creativity kits.

Among other participants of the event were Head of Chernihiv Oblast State Administration Volodymyr Kulish, Head of the Board of Directors of Ukraine 3000 Foundation Oleksandr Maksymchuk, representatives of local authorities, Chernivtsi oblast’s medical institutions, and Ukraine 3000 Foundation.

Chernivtsi Oblast Medical and Social Rehabilitation Center for Children with Organic Lesions of Nervous System was founded in Chernivtsi on the initiative of oblast administration in 2007. It features the School of Life rehabilitation clinic, including the Special Child Bukovyna Oblast Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children and a medical and social rehabilitation center for children with organic lesions of nervous system. The Center’s major goal is giving a child a chance to integrate into the society.

The Center has an outpatient clinic, diagnosing center, hospital unit, and social & pediatric unit with pedagogues, psychologists, speech therapists, social pedagogues, tutors, rehabilitation specialists, and assistants on its staff. The Center offers a broad range of services on medical, physiological, and psychological rehabilitation. It also has gyms, walk correction rooms, music and choreography rooms, computer class, and exercise therapy rooms.

The center receives 80 patients per day. The hospital unit’s bed capacity is 30, 20 children are admitted as outpatients, and 30 stay at the Special Child Bukovyna Center. Children ahed from 1 month to 18 years are treated at the Center. Individual rehabilitation plans are designed for each child.

In its first year of operation, 123 children have been admitted to its hospital unit and another 170 treated as outpatients. 70% of them demonstrate a considerable improvement in their speech and psychological development, especially among children aged under 3.

As part of its action to help the flooded regions in summer 2008, the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation donated to the Center orthopedic standing systems to the total of UAH 30,000.

Mrs. Yushchenko and Ukraine 3000 Foundation members are on a one-day working trip to Chernivtsi oblast.