Twenty children from Krasnohorivka – a small town in the area of Joint Forces Operation, close to the delimitation line – have visited Feldman Ecopark. This visit was arranged for them by caring residents of Kharkiv. It was a rare opportunity for these kids to feel a careless joy of happy childhood, to forget (at least for some time) the alarms of the war. In the Social and Humanitarian Multi-Complex, the visitors were welcomed cordially: they were taken to a observation excursion, acquainted with the representatives of animal collections, entertained on inflatable attractions and fed by a tasty dinner.
“They do not have home there, as the war continues. I had a call to those area yesterday morning and heard shooting and shells bursting. We are glad that we have managed to bring these children to our peaceful life, to show our beautiful Kharkiv, to demonstrate what they should strive for. We hope that they understand that Ukraine does not abandon them,” one of the organizers of the trip, the member of Rotary Club Kharkiv City Ihor Balaka told. “These children were not able to have a normal peaceful childhood for a third or a half of their lives. We shown them all of the best things in our city including, of course, Feldman Ecopark. It is possible to say that here, they blossomed and shed their constraint. They walk, play, laugh, surprise, take photos. Even their eyes have changed!”
According to the organizers of the trip, the project will develop. It is planned to have new excursions, creative exhibitions, charitable auctions and other events.
“Not only these kids need the project. We, adults, also need it in order not to forget what does it mean to be able to empathize, to be able to share either our means or our time, not to forget what does it mean to be a worthy person. When we just published information on Facebook, it turned out that there are a lot of worthy people in our city: some of them offered lunches in their facilities, others offered a cultural programme, financial assistance, transport or their services of a guide to make a tour of the city of Kharkiv,” Ihor Balaka noted. “That is why we are going to continue doing what we do together with our friends and like-minded people – we will take care of children from Krasnohorivka and other children as well. All of them are our children – there’s no such thing as other people’s children!”
It should be reminded that the care about the rising generation is one of the most important fields of activities at the Social and Humanitarian Multi-Complex Feldman Ecopark. Dozens of projects connected with health improvement and education of children are implemented in it. The most well-known and massive ones among them are the Centre for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (offering eco-therapy for different categories of children including the ones with special needs), Ukraine’s largest Children’s Ecology and Nature Study Academy, and social and sports cluster 1,000 Teams Tournament. During summer holidays, Feldman Ecopark opens its Children’s Health-Improving and Educational Camp, in which nearly 10,000 children from Kharkiv and Kharkiv oblast rest every year free of charge.
