SupportA celebration does not always come on its own. Sometimes it has to be brought in boxes, across borders, by human hands. That is exactly how our team congratulated children on the upcoming New Year holidays today in a place where, instead of festive decorations, there are hospital corridors, and instead of waiting for a miracle, there is a daily struggle.
We visited three hospitals and delivered 110 gifts – small messages of support, warmth, and care. These packages traveled a long way from the United Kingdom. In Milton Keynes, the Ukrainian diaspora carefully assembled them, thinking about children who are spending the holidays away from home this year. The Ukraine Appeal Foundation, Sunflower School, and Viktoriya Shtanko made it possible for a piece of Christmas magic to reach children in Ukraine.
These are children who are living through two wars at once – the war in the country and the war with illness. If they feel the first one through the news and air-raid alerts, the second does not let go even for a moment. We were happy to distract them, even just a little, to give them a moment filled with laughter, curiosity, and a simple feeling: I am not alone.
Our first stop was Okhmatdyt, the pediatric endocrinology department. Doctors, parents, and the children themselves welcomed us warmly. A small circle gathered in the playroom, and right there, our young helper, Dominika, handed out the gifts. We wished the children a speedy recovery. This is the most important and most honest wish one can say within hospital walls.
Next – the Kyiv Regional Oncology Dispensary, pediatric oncohematology department. Here, festive words sound quieter, but they carry special weight. Because every smile is a small victory.
The third stop was the Kyiv City Clinical Oncology Center, pediatric department. There we were met by Yuliia from the Pediatricians Against Cancer Foundation, who cares for the children every day during their treatment. She introduces us to Sofiia and Denys. They were really waiting for LEGO. They say there is not much to do in the hospital, and building sets help distract them and help them spend time without thoughts about hospital corridors.
– What else do you like to do? We ask.
– Paint-by-numbers, drawing, building sets, they answer.
Denys quietly adds that he dreams of LEGO Technic sets.
Then the children gather “for a walk.” We are surprised – where to? It turns out the walks here take place in the neighboring room with Yuliia. There, they can play, draw, and drink hot cocoa. A small island of normality in the middle of a difficult reality.
We left some of the gifts under the Christmas tree so that every child, when able to leave their room, could find their own and rejoice as if the world had become a little simpler and kinder for a moment.
Perhaps this is the true meaning of Christmas and the New Year: in warm meetings, in a gift that arrived from another country, in cocoa in a hospital room, in a child who forgot for a moment that they are ill. Because where adults do not lose the ability to share warmth, children gain the chance to believe again: after darkness, light always comes.
