Independence Day in Peremoga 2025
We celebrate Ukraine’s Independence Day with friends from the village of Peremoga in the Kyiv region. Grandmothers, grandfathers, people with disabilities – residents of a specialized local institution, together with the staff, know that on this day the foundation’s team and anyone else who wants to join in will organize a watermelon picnic. This tradition has been going on for years. New details are added – this year, for example, we brought ice cream. And here we sincerely thank our constant friend and benefactor Ievgen Saveliev for financing this ‘idea’. And we were ‘provoked’ by one wonderful person who gave us a lot of deliciouses, including waffle cups. Everyone enjoyed the ice cream like children. It is such a joy to be able to bring happy smiles to the faces of our elderly friends, who are a little sad and tired.
The constant components of the holiday – music, communication, hugs, and deliciouses– are what people have come to expect from us. So, we try to give it our all. And that’s not easy. Today, all eyes, including ours, are on the defenders of Ukraine. The daily gatherings should be exhausting, but they only make us resist and unite even more. So, there are not many resources for this, including human resources. But they are still there, which is even more valuable and responsible. After all, our boys and girls are defending a country where lonely elderly people and people with disabilities must be respected.
Therefore, this invaluable small concert by a young talented Ukrainian woman, member of the Ukrainian band Ame Trio and violin teacher at a children’s music school, Krystyna Hordiienko, is a huge gift for all of us. The elderly cried, thanked us sincerely, hugged the violinist and all of us.
Another young Ukrainian girl delighted all the old-timers of the foundation. Arsenia, a 19-year-old Kyiv resident and student at the Glier College, saw our announcements about the trip and asked to join us. The girl bought marshmallows for all the residents of the facility and individual gifts for Valery Stelmakh and Alexey Beresnev (many of the foundation’s fans know these guys well). She eagerly helped with all aspects of the ‘picnic’ and even worked as a model in a small photo session by our photo fairy Lyudmila Eliseeva. Lyudochka, as always, we are eternally grateful to you. Here are some photos from the event. We look forward to seeing the photos from the photo shoot.
We sincerely thank Olga Kuchmeeva, her friends, and colleagues from Zavodshop. Olga herself is very helpful, and with the support of like-minded people, she always brings a full boot of adult diapers, clothes, food, and everything else you can imagine. Most importantly, she always wants to support, cheer up, and warm the hearts of the loving grandchildren of those for whom the specialized institution has become their home.
The team of guests was reinforced by children. It has long been proven that they are very relaxed and easily immersed in communication, festive ‘kitchen’ and organizational issues. Oleksandra, the daughter of our project coordinator Viola Churykova, together with Liza, the granddaughter of a nurse at the facility, made sure we didn’t mess up the distribution of gifts, checked that everyone got everything, made us laugh and gave us hope that everything will be fine if we have children like this. Of course, we are grateful to their parents! We are grateful to Viola for her great heart, personal involvement in organizing the trip and visits, and for raising your daughter! We are lost without you.
In Peremoga, in addition to the holiday, we worked on some household matters: we bought and delivered new and used frying pans. We completed the diagnostics and routine repair of the generator that keeps the facility running when there is no electricity. We are proud of our staff, led by manager Lubov Orel. These people do very difficult work in every sense of the word!
We talked, enjoyed the holiday and each other’s company, took on new tasks and requests, and went to Kyiv to continue our service for the sake of a dignified and joyful life for the elderly and people with disabilities.
Sincere thanks to all the benefactors who support us in this endeavour!
