Wounded childhood: The Rehabilitation of Wounded Children programme of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation is 9 years old
Until 2022, hostilities continued in eastern Ukraine. Children were severely injured as a result of enemy attacks. To help them recover as soon as possible, on March 10, 2016, the Foundation launched the “Rinat Akhmetov to Children. Rehabilitation of Wounded Children” programme. During the full-scale invasion, boys and girls from all over the country can undergo physical and psychological rehabilitation after being wounded.
“This can happen to anyone at any time,” says 15-year-old Daniil from Bohodukhiv. He was in his room when the shelling started. After being wounded, the teenager cannot lift anything heavy and is working to restore mobility to his arm.
An important stage of the children’s rehabilitation is sessions with a psychologist, and each of the prescribed procedures affects their physical and emotional state. The kids like the swimming pool the most.
“There’s also a salt room to keep us from getting sick and aromatherapy, where you have to sit quietly,” said 8-year-old Nazarii. He was in the sanatorium with his 10-year-old sister Valeriia. The occupants wounded them in Borodianka.
Maryna, a 10-year-old girl, was injured in a missile attack on her native Voznesensk and is undergoing treatment after the aftermath of a terrible explosion. The Foundation helped her undergo the necessary rehabilitation.
“I believe that the Foundation’s help is invaluable. Our children are our future. If we help them now, their adult life will be much better,” said the girl’s mother Anastasiia.
The Foundation also helped 4-year-old Veronika, who came under russian shelling with her family in March 2022. At the sanatorium, the girl attended physical therapy, a salt room and other procedures.
“Veronika really liked the oxygen foam in the phytobar and the massage. She became more active and calmer,” said Olesia, Veronika’s mother.
According to the doctors, the standard diagnosis of patients who come to them for rehabilitation is the consequences of mine-blast injuries and shrapnel wounds. Procedures are selected to solve not only a specific problem, but to affect the entire body.
“Patients notice a significant reduction in pain and improved limb mobility. Thanks to the work with a psychologist, the emotional state is levelled out, in particular, mothers notice that their children’s anxiety has decreased,” says Snizhana Chebotarova, the head doctor of the sanatorium.
The Foundation has already provided treatment and rehabilitation assistance to more than 11,000 Ukrainians.
Children under the age of 18 who were injured during the hostilities in Ukraine after February 24, 2022, can take part in the project free of charge.
Thanks to the Rinat Akhmetov to Children! programme, young Ukrainians receive medical treatment, hearing aids, undergo psychological and physical rehabilitation, and have the opportunity to develop and realise their dreams. Since its establishment, the Foundation has helped more than 5 million children. “Rinat Akhmetov to Children. Help that gives tomorrow”.
You can submit an application at http://akhmetovfoundation.org/s/d3a7be For more information, please call the Foundation’s toll-free hotline 0 (800) 509 001.
