Today, on my seventh and final day of sending aid from Essex to Ukraine, I saw the power of life-changing friendships from us volunteers with our funny and lovely guides to children’s hospice workers making sure each child, each person, has joy, comfort, and care in their final days.
How we treat the wounded, the elderly, the vulnerable and the disabled is an affirmation and confirmation of our humanity. A donated set of sanitary products or towels or toys are no good to children with lifelong disabilities if no one can help the children use them. Sadly, the Revival Centre in Chernihiv, for disabled children and families, would also dwindle into nothing without donations from the small British charities UK-aid, TEECH, and the Harwich Ukraine Support Project.
As this is my final daily dispatch, I would like to firstly thank my editor Anna Damski for all her tireless efforts in helping me publish this information. In Ukraine, whenever I or someone else has revealed that I am a journalist, I always receive a huge smile but also a sense of desperation. You have helped me but more so all the Ukrainian people eager for their voices to be heard.
Anna’s response: “When Séamus first contacted East Anglia Bylines about publishing a daily account of his journey, I was intrigued by the project. I knew he had only recently graduated, and this was a huge project to report on, doing it in his own time while on leave from work. It’s a great credit to him that he’s done it so well, under adverse conditions.
“I found as each despatch has arrived – sometimes objective, sometimes emotional – he has really helped bring home to me how hard and stressful life in a war zone is. Yet out of that darkness, there is the shining beacon of the Revival Centre, and the incredible work the doctors, nurses and staff are doing under extraordinary conditions to transform the lives of disabled children, and the volunteers taking risks to travel across a continent to deliver the aid generously donated by the people of Essex and beyond. I’ve found it genuinely inspiring.”
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Today the Revival Centre, where we have been staying for the past few days, was transformed from being our accommodation to a vibrant and hectic hub. This morning was the traditional end-of-trip children’s concert where we, as guests, were treated to singing and dancing from the children.
As well as saying thank you to volunteers, I was also told that the singing was a way for the children to show ‘resistance’. The singing, dancing, and clapping was a way to demonstrate their national pride for Ukraine and against Russia.
It was also very clear that the parents taking videos on their smartphones had in their own way banded together. Outside the jubilant concert music room, I saw two happy mothers walking with each other, coffees in hand, without their children, and I saw dozens of children with their friends. I wondered what if there was no such hub or support in Chernihiv – or anywhere in the world – for children with additional needs and their carers. That and other questions would be addressed in my later afternoon tour.
Before the children’s concert, I was called to meet a family in Dr P’s office. Dr P alongside Dr Natalia founded the Revival Centre 28 years ago. Alan Hillar, who co-founded charity UK-aid with his wife Pauline Craven in 2003, first met the doctors in 2000, and they have an extremely close bond. For example, yesterday on Easter Sunday, Alan gave one mother a six-month supply of thyroid medication donated by a pharmacist near Great Dunmow, Essex. After being given the small prescription bag, the woman handed Alan a massive chocolate cake with kiwi and other fruit in it. The incredible-tasting cake was then enjoyed by all the volunteers.
Meanwhile, the case in Dr P’s office was a lot more complex and in one word – harrowing. A couple with their child, who described themselves as a ‘unit of three’, explained that their house in a village twenty miles from the Russian border was hit by a missile. The father, having woken up, was able to save the family with mere seconds to spare, but their house and their livelihoods were obliterated. Our next ‘aid’ trip, with me – the ‘journalist’ present – was to visit the ruins of their home.
On the way to the village, which was a half-hour drive away and only a few miles from the Russian border, we went through a military check-point. Most of the occasions we’ve come across them, we’ve driven straight through them, maybe presenting some of our passports. This time, they wanted to see every passport, which they carefully studied and noted down. Before we had even parked up, I could see a few soldiers pointing at me.
While they spoke Ukrainian, I heard them say my name several times, and it was explained that because I was so young I was a priority to be checked. I held my breath and my passport, and at last was passed.
Seeing a video on social media of a missile attack is emotionally taxing. But by going first-hand to each location we, the volunteers, begin to develop true empathy and understanding towards the victims of this war. Getting closer and closer to Russia, the fields were barren and empty due to planted mines. As we neared, there was an odour, and when we got to the house which was only bombed two weeks ago, it was still pungent with the charred, musty smell of what was left of the farm. A neighbour’s pig had been blown up with such force by a Russian missile, its body was thrown a good distance away.
The family have $10,000 US dollars saved for a new house and are renting in a very rundown part of Chernihiv. They need $14,000 more, and that’s when Alan steps into action-mode to fundraise. All of us chipped in money directly to them and listened to their story, the ruin of their home in the background.
One of the advantages of volunteers taking the aid themselves is that they get to meet the people who haven’t asked for help, but who they can assist. An example of that is the the family’s next door neighbours, who are both 73 and been married for 53 years and who invited us into their home. Tony Elliston, chair of the Harwich Ukraine Support Project, made sure I focused my attention on them too, and is planning to help them now. Tony does not want anyone to be forgotten, and is highly conscientious.
Next was I would say the highlight of my trip: a tour of the Revival Centre – a sprawling maze of corridors which I had only seen bits and pieces of. This was the most important part for Alan. He has has worked tirelessly with the centre for over two decades – long before Russia invaded and the world looked on in horror and with increased awareness of Ukraine’s poverty and disparity.
There was a therapeutic swimming pool with a lift for children unable to get in unaided, built in 2017 thanks to donations. There were puzzles in every room that helped children with hand disabilities develop both their hands and brain as a muscle – which are far more expensive than other toys. There were craft rooms, computer rooms, and numerous therapeutic rooms. In one room there was a clock from Blackburn Rovers FC, in another a clock from Liverpool FC. There were expensive spider cages for children with disabilities to test their strength, and a blue baby table donated from Yorkshire.
In another room was a dentist’s chair provided by someone in the Netherlands. There is a huge demand for children with disabilities for dentists due to their difficulty brushing teeth – and dentists even go out into the community.
One thing I learnt, and will always remember, is the focus on brain-building. From certain thoughtfully and carefully chosen special toys which use hand coordination to music, art, and physical activity, every one ensuring each child’s potential is met.
Upstairs we were taken to the hospice room. In Britain and western countries, this would be called ‘palliative care’, for children at the end of their life. The Revival Centre in Ukraine is actually the pilot project for the whole of Ukraine, as currently palliative care is only recognised for adults and not for children. Each room was made to feel like a bedroom – playful with big TVs playing bright cartoons.
The children downstairs had many friends, and these children whose disabilities have cut short their lives, had their parents and all the nurses. Friendship and love.
I did have a cry afterwards.
I do believe the goodness and strong will of the Revival Centre to improve the quality of life of all the children with disabilities in their care, makes them a world-class organisation.
Shortly after the tour, we had our final meal together, and said goodbye to all the workers at the centre.
In Ukraine they toast first to children, to friendship, and to women.
I have become friends with 21-year-old Anastasia, who is training to be a doctor and is a professional dancer who makes her own costumes. She will be visiting the UK and so returning on the vans with us. I have also made friends with the other volunteers, who know who they are.
Each individual – Ukrainian and British – made a toast, all of them moving and from the heart. Mine is on the video below. For the final toast Alan raised his glass to the Ukrainians and said: “To all the volunteers you have never met”.
Each person in Britain who helped with the fundraising and aid are the unseen friends of the Revival Centre.
The friendships we continue to build with Ukraine, in Britain and Europe, are our greatest strengths and will protect the free, democratic world. Where leaders are on our level and are friends with one another. To friendship.
Over and out.
