Elina Haiduk’s parents experienced their daughter’s second birth

On September, 5 the whole world celebrates the International Charity Day. This day has acquired a special status relatively recently - at the end of 2012, by the decision of the UN, and is now celebrated annually.

Dozens of charitable projects and organizations operate in Ukraine that help people cope with social and economic upheavals. The price of this assistance is hundreds of thousands of our citizens’ saved lives.

Last year, the rating of charitable organizations working in Ukraine, accomplished by the Ukrainian Philanthropists forum, was published. According to experts, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation was in second place, losing first ranking spot to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. Thus, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation became the largest Ukrainian charitable organization.

During 12 years of the Foundation’s work the significant results were achieved:

• 8,700 of children have found new families thanks to the program “Say No to Orphanhood!”;
• 20,000 of people received targeted assistance;
• 150,000 of people underwent medical examination and treatment;
• more than 1,000,000 of people received assistance from the Humanitarian Centre.

Over the years, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has seen many dramatic stories of salvation. One of them is the story of two-year-old Elina Haiduk from the Luhansk region. All children are born with an open arterial duct, but usually it closes safely. Elina’s duct remained patent, and this posed a direct threat to the child's life.

"Elichka was born a healthy, plump girl, with a weight of 3,500. Nothing foreboded the tragedy. But when she was three months old, the doctor examined our daughter and anxiously referred her to the ultrasonography of her heart, which followed by the terrible diagnosis "open arterial duct." The doctors offered the urgent surgery, but our family just did not have the money. The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation assisted us by financing the surgery," said Alina Haiduk, the girl's mother.

The surgery lasted only half an hour and was successful. An occluder – a special implant, which permanently closes the heart defect – was installed. Now the girl's life is out of danger. The young parents experienced their daughter’s second birth and now they are sure that everything will be fine with their baby.

The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation continues to help people and works on the new programs and projects. Natalia Yemchenko, a member of Supervisory Board at the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, told about them inter alia.

"For Ukraine, charity has top priority. In 2014, with the outbreak of the war, Rinat Akhmetov decided to concentrate all his efforts to help the Donbas civilians. Over the past three years, 90% of all the Foundation projects have been implemented by the Humanitarian Centre, the largest humanitarian mission in the history of Ukraine and, perhaps, in the history of world charity. When one person saved more than a million human lives, it certainly deserves great respect," said Natalia Yemchenko.