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Painful experiences
Mothers’ Union is a twelve-year support fund for children with cancer. According to its founder Eglė Mėlinauskienė, around 100 children contract oncological diseases in Lithuania every year. When a child gets sick, it can be said that his whole family also gets sick. Not only for the patient, but also for the whole family, the hospital becomes a second home.
Treatment can last for years, sometimes longer. For a long time, a child lying in the Oncology Department does not have the opportunity to enjoy the home environment, the closeness of sisters, brothers and parents.
“Medicine today treats children with cancer diseases more and more effectively, but at that time the family of a sick child is also experiencing a very painful experience,” said Eglė.
The boy’s father, a boy with cancer, froze against the glass as he slept in a car near the hospital in the winter to see his son again the next morning. The patient’s brother tried to raise his hand in front of him to regain the attention of his mother, who was more necessary than her seriously ill sister. The younger brother and sister, who had been home alone for many months, were cared for by neighbors. When a boy got sick, Daddy started drinking … These are stories that illustrate the trials of a boy with cancer. E.Mėlinauskienė has heard hundreds of similar stories about children with cancer diseases.
Not only the sick but also their relatives need help. Therefore, the representatives of the “Mother’s Union” began to think about how to create a home in which the relatives of seriously ill children receive not only emotional, social and other help, but also a very precious opportunity to be together.
We want families staying at Family House to find what they lack most here: the opportunity to be together.
There was no government support
About eight years ago, the Mother’s Union raised funds to treat Luke, who has an oncological disease. Unfortunately, the boy did not survive. He traveled to one of Scotland’s hospitals.
“Then I asked the families what to do with that money, because we raised a lot for the treatment of the child, about 107 thousand litas, – said E. Mėlinauskienė. – They said:” Luke went out in a special house, surrounded by peace and Beware, perhaps one day such houses will appear in Lithuania as well. Let this be the first contribution: “This is how the idea began to develop.”
After deciding to build a “Family House”, the “Mother’s Union” asked the authorities: the Government, the Ministry of Health, the Vilnius municipality, presented the project and asked for support to allocate land for construction . And although they received good words and thanks for the initiative everywhere, they received no support. In the end, they decided not to ask more, but to take action themselves. They found a piece of land, bought it for funds donated to the Goodwill Foundation, and started construction.
“You walk please everyone will bow their heads, but nothing helps – it hurts.” But then you swallow all that nonsense, because you understand that there are people who trusted you, who donated money, so you cannot wait for some official decisions, and especially when you see that you will not get anything, shares E. Mėlinauskienė. – We simply could not disappoint people who had already donated to this cause. Sick children and donors were the engine we made because we believed in ourselves. “
More than walls
The “Family House” has been completed and delivered just before quarantine. About 2.5 million have already been invested. euros That’s 2 thousand. kv. m building in Vilnius, near the Santara clinics.
Based on the best examples and practice from other countries, the idea of the “family home” is to create a center for families of sick children so that they can be together in a safe, welcoming and healthy environment.
“We want the families who stayed at the Casa de la Familia to find what they lack most here: an opportunity to be together,” says E. Mėlinauskienė.
There will be 11 comfortable rooms with terraces suitable for larger and smaller families: cabinet furniture and mini kitchens have already been ordered and manufactured. The house will also have a shared kitchen, dining room, laundry.
The rooms already have beds, a gift from Vilniaus Baldai. They were made for fever clinics, not a luxury, but I’m glad they’re there. Magrės baldai donated three more beds. A businessman bought appliances for 10,000. euros Ignitis handed over the used administration furniture. Another company brought five new sofas.
Agrokoncernas promises to buy a lawnmowing robot. In this way, everything gradually became “sticky” thanks to the kindness of the people.
It is planned to install a so-called Butterfly Room in the Family House, adapted for children who need palliative care. It has a special bed, a bathroom with equipment to carry a child. Beds were purchased by the Chicago Rotary Club. They also donated special equipment and exercise machines to the rehabilitation room.
Probably the most expensive in the “Casa de la Familia” is the pool. According to E.Mėlinauskienė, its maintenance will cost around 3.5 thousand people each month. euros But for children, it will probably be the greatest joy. The pool is also adapted for the disabled, so hydrotherapy treatments will also be provided.
Free help
In this foster home, the family will receive additional assistance from occupational therapists, speech therapists, physical therapists, psychologists, and clergy. Families will be cared for by volunteers and health professionals. All this will not cost families anything.
According to E.Mėlinauskienė, “Family House” will not replace the hospital or doctors, but will give the child and his family members the opportunity to spend more time together and receive rehabilitation services.
How do doctors react to this? “It is important to every doctor that the child he or she receives is as healthy as possible. There are times when a child may not be in the room for a day or a few, and driving home is a long way to go. Or, for example, sending a child whose blood counts may suddenly change to a distant city is very risky. Then he will be able to stay with his family in the Family House, says the founder of the Mother’s Union. one day we will be able to take the children from the city to the day hospital, provide them with rehabilitation procedures, because some sometimes have to wait a long time. I think we can help those children, not just oncology patients. “
Create comfort
The families who stay in these houses want to find what they lack the most. And most kids want playrooms, a pool, and pets they can raise. Children do not receive these things in the hospital during treatment. All planned activities will benefit not only sick children, but also their siblings, who, when affected by the disease, may feel forgotten or forced to grow up prematurely.
In the courtyard, the initiators of the project would like to establish a greenhouse where all kinds of fragrant therapy plants can be planted. Art therapies, games rooms and a playground for families are also prepared.
To remind the hospital family as little as possible of the children, it was decided to decorate the walls of their rooms with drawings. The idea came from the artist Nomeda Marčėnaitė: to give interested artists the opportunity to brighten children’s lives with their drawings. The walls of the three rooms are already decorated.
Decreased sacrifice
What emotions does a person attract who has been fighting for sick children for more than a decade, but who is far from always being heard?
“Every day is different,” says E. Mėlinauskienė. – When you do not touch and do not ask: the sinusoid falls and it is necessary to discover a lot of force to “restore” But you see those children’s eyes, you see mothers, you know they need what you do. Of course, there are also very happy days. For example, when we hear that we have a problem, five men come and cut the grass all over the area. So realize that there really are a lot of those good people. After all, everything here is done only thanks to the kindness of the people, the whole project is implemented with the support of individuals and legal entities, business organizations, Lithuanians from America, England and Ireland. I think this project will show that great things can be done even without the support of the state. “
I want to let families into the “Family House of the Mother’s Union” as soon as possible. At commercial prices, it would be possible to buy everything that is missing, but what happens next? After all, the Mothers Union has many obligations for sick children, which are often even more important, for example, to buy medicines that are not reimbursed in Lithuania. Or to help parents with children whose treatment is not possible here to go to other countries for treatment: a family of one child needs around 25 thousand a year. euros
It is also worrying that the Foundation of the Mother’s Union has to maintain the “Family House”, and the situation has changed a lot due to the quarantine. Some of the events from which the Mother’s Union received funds did not take place. The fund’s operations are greatly affected by the economic situation: if it deteriorates, the business is bad, and it will not be good for the fund, because people will not have to donate money. The sacrifice is already greatly diminished.
N.Marčėnaitė: artistic taste develops from childhood
When looking around the Family House, I thought it would be great to invite many artists to decorate the walls. This is a place where children need to have fun. For adults, such an environment would help them seek harmony so that they can find the strength and motivation to rise within themselves. Sometimes it doesn’t take much effort, it takes goodwill. So people get such good acceleration, wings. And art is really a powerful force and therapy. Anything that can lift a person is appropriate. It is important that it is not primitive, it is not “lemonade” in the wrong sense. It would be positive and artistic. After all, artistic taste has developed from childhood, just for some reason we believe that anything that is suitable for children is suitable for us, we apply all kinds of tasteless to them. It doesn’t have to be.
Everyone’s help is welcome
The Family House project still needs help. Not necessarily financial: helpful and helpful, everyone who is willing and able to contribute their work is welcome.
In order for families with sick children to settle here as soon as possible, the Mothers’ Union Family House currently lacks dining tables with chairs, bathroom furniture, pool and exercise equipment, outdoor patio furniture, and shelves for storing food.
It would help secure the activities of the “Mother’s Union Family House” with financial support. Donations can be made to the “Unión de Madres” account:
Mothers Charity and Union Support Foundation
Company code: 302288579
VAT code: LT100009837618
Swedbank, AB
Bank code 73000
SWIFT HABALT22
Como. LT 77 7300 0101 4079 5625
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