The First Lady of the State visited the Regional Center for Complex Rehabilitation of Children with Disabilities "Revival" after a large-scale reconstruction

 On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the First Lady of the State Marina Poroshenko visited the Chernihiv Regional Center for Complex Rehabilitation of Children with Disabilities "Revival" with a working visit.

The program of her visit is to familiarize with the new possibilities of the center after a large-scale reconstruction that was started in October 2016. The work was financed from state and regional budgets, and benefactors provided significant assistance. In total, about 20 million hryvnias were used for all and from all possible sources.
During her visit, she was accompanied by: People's Deputy of Ukraine Serhiy Berezenko, Head of Chernihiv Regional State Administration Valery Kulich. Guests at the center were met by: Alla Onuprienko, Advisor to the Minister for Social Policy of Ukraine, Head of the Chernihiv Regional Council Igor Vdovenko, Chernihiv City Mayor Vladislav Atroshenko, Head of the Department of Social Welfare Oleg Rusin, Director of the Regional Department of the Social Protection Fund for Persons with Disabilities Irina Los, General Director of the Enterprise " UkrsiverBud" Victor Veresha, director of the Center Vasyl Pasichnyk, as well as representatives of charitable organizations from the United Kingdom - George and Marion Mills, Alan Hilliar .

Last year, the start of the reconstruction fell on the first visit of Marina Anatoliivna to the center. It was then she promised to be present at the opening of an already rebuilt and upgraded center. That's what happened.

The First Lady highly appreciated the results of a large-scale reconstruction of the facility, which included the commissioning of an additional three-story building, on which on the first floor was a modern pool with a lift for children with functional disorders, which was carefully purchased by British benefactors, as well as a whirlpool with 4 baths - one of necessary for full rehabilitation of improvements.

In addition to the listed in the building, there are 5 additional units of the food unit equipped with new equipment, a large music hall, cabinets of physical education, a gym, a cozy lobby, rooms for the office of social and domestic orientation. The area of the newly built premises is more than 800 square meters. With the expansion of the center for childcare, 52 workplaces were created.
Another important point of the tour was the palliative block - bright, in superb drawings (the result of a joint project with the volunteers from England of the University of Ruskin), with cozy children's rooms that do not resemble a hospital at all. The launch of this unit is the only pilot project in Ukraine to provide palliative care to incurably ill children with genetic and neurological diseases. The initiator and developer of this project was the physician-neurologist of the center Natalia Zentchenko.
The palliative unit is designed for 4 beds. The project started in July 2017 with the aim of creating an affordable and effective system for providing palliative care to seriously ill children with a limited life span to improve their quality of life and their families. Already eight children have received services here in comfortable conditions and with good care of qualified specialists.
After getting acquainted with the palliative unit, Marina Poroshenko promised to personally address this issue and raise it for discussion at the level of the ministries of health and social policy. She noted that this is a very topical issue, which should have state support and a systemic approach.
It was in this block that the First Lady was communicating with English philanthropists George and Marion Mills, Alan Hilliar. She thanked them for their hard day-to-day work for the benefit of Ukrainian children and promised to join forces in this direction.
- It is a great honor for us to work in Ukraine for the last 22 years. The Ukrainians are a very strong nation, very good people live here - George Mills has established.
As a sign of respect for British philanthropists Marina Poroshenko handed Marion Mills a magnificent bouquet of roses.

Another aspect of rehabilitation that has been demonstrated for an honored guest - a lesson on canis therapy, or the communication of children with psycho-emotional or functional disorders with a specially prepared dog.

This technique has been working in the center for more than 6 years, and is provided by its chief specialist - the dog of the Italian breed of cani-corso Lilu. In 2011, a local businessman and head of the COLLAR company, Yuri Sinitsa, offered to assist in implementing a socially important project to implement this method on the basis of the "Revival". The project involves delivering a dog to the center twice a week, as well as preparing her for psycho-corrective lessons with children under the direction of coach Michael Kulko, who is in fact the second owner of Lilu, and with the understanding of the case, directs the dog during the therapeutic session.

Classes are held in close tandem with the center psychologist Yevgeny Vitvitsky and enjoy great popularity among children. They have such a positive effect on the state of children, that after the reconstruction for these classes there was a separate special room - a hall for group correctional work.

The reconstruction project also included the construction of new physical rehabilitation halls with modern equipment. For children with severe disorders of the musculoskeletal system, in order to improve the skills of walking, they have installed the "Spider" overstrain system with ropes and fasteners. This system was presented by the pharmaceutical company Bayer, which again, thanks to the volunteer projects of its representative Anna Hrymchak, provided significant financial assistance to the center.

"Spider" helps small patients with functional disorders "get free" from the weight of their own body and learn the skills of movement (walking, crawling, etc.), evenly distributes the load on the entire musculoskeletal system to improve the amplitude of movements, normalize the muscle tone and increase their strength . Also here they found their place: a modern treadmill, multi-level functional stairs-bars, training apparatus "Motomed", purchased at the expense of the regional department of the social protection fund for persons with disabilities. The use of this equipment in the rehabilitation of children is very wide.

During the sightseeing tour, the director of the center Vasyl Pasichnyk drew attention to the fact that all services are provided to children for free, because, in his opinion, no one has the right to earn money in this category, although in Ukraine there is a tendency in some rehabilitation centers.
Marina Poroshenko was pleasantly impressed with the standards of the center and noted that even in the capital, a similar institution does not meet.

"This is already a rehabilitation center of the European level, where there are all the conditions for the child to be able to receive full assistance in all necessary directions," said Marina Poroshenko after familiarizing her with the work of the center. And we see that the children are smiling and the parents very grateful - they have the hope that their children will have a secure future, will be able to socialize, improve their health and get a good education for the future. And, looking at the eyes of the director of the center and his deputies, I am sure that they will not stop there, and the center will continue to develop ", - summed up the wife of the President of Ukraine.
If the state made a construction, then the filling of new premises was taken care of by philanthropists and sponsors: they purchased functional beds, televisions, air conditioners, physical rehabilitation equipment and medical equipment for the palliative unit. In short, everything is to create comfortable conditions for children. Among them are those who take care of the "Revival" center since the beginning of its foundation. Some of them came to the center on the eve of the First Lady's visit: the founders of the English Charity "Fund of the Priscilla" spouses Chris and Priscilla Breuer, heads of the charity organization "British aid for Deprived Children" George and Marion Mills, founder of the charitable organization "Felsted aid for Deprived Children" Alan Hilliar, as well as the old friend of the center - Honored Artist of Ukraine Igor Sayenko, who always donates part of his concert fee for helping the children of the center.

We can not help but remember our countryman, the talented bandyrist Zoryana Mazko, who now resides in Switzerland, but is constantly engaged in charity - earnes during specially organized concerts and transfers money for the needs of the center.

This time the program of staying of English friends was short but rich.
On Saturday, December 02, they had an official meeting with Chernihiv Mayor Vladislav Atroshenko, who sincerely thanked the benefactors for their active support to the sick children of Chernihiv Oblast, many years of assistance in solving the actual social issues of the city and the region: the rehabilitation center has been working for 22 years and during this time 26,000 children with special needs were assisted here.
- Many, with very large and respectable positions, can not understand why they live in this world. But people who give part of their time, their opportunities to good cause, no matter what this case was, in my eyes rise above many of the leaders - said the head of the city.

It is important to note that the considerable attention of the state and the help of good philanthropic friends give the center the opportunity to constantly develop, and children get daily skills and receive correctional and medical services at a high level.