We are currently in contact with the Children Clinical Hospital in Simferopol to determine which children most urgently require treatment & would benefit the greatest from the donations collected from the raffle.
An update will follow shortly stating which cases have been chosen to receive the funds & detailing what treatment will be provided as a result.

Finally we would like to thank everyone who was involved in this, our first campaign whether they donated prizes or purchased tickets. Thanks to all of their support the raffle was a resounding success !

After much written and verbal communication with Crimean Voluntary Community "Parental Initiative" in Simferopol Ukraine, we concluded that it would be most advantageous to assist in acquiring medication for most seriously ill children directly at the source in Simferopol. Additionally it is substantially more reliable and much cheaper to deliver the funds in person rather than transfer them through a Russian Bank. So Sergey the Chairman of our foundation took the initiative to deliver the funds in person, at his own personal cost and left Amsterdam to travel to Ukraine on the 14th August.

Sergey's Story:

'Upon my arrival in Simferopol the Organisers of the regional charity fund Eugene & Marina Novitsky warmly and hospitality welcomed me into their home. The next day began with a visit to the Ukrainian Children Clinical Hospital (UCCH) Haematology Department where we were meet by Olga V. Ivanova the Deputy Manager of the department and two of the Haematological doctors Ekaterina N. Ivleva and Olga I. Stiopkina.
Olga accompanied us on a tour of the children's wards, treatment room, canteen and doctors lounge. Olga then explained the day to day work of the department and its needs. Although the hospital is clean it is apparent everywhere you look that the conditions there are subject to much poverty.
Following the tour we organised a meeting with the Managers, Doctors & Eugene in order to discuss and determine the most urgent cases who should benefit from the funds raised. (I would like to point out that many of the children are in urgent and dire need of treatment and medication and although we would like to be in a position to help everyone, unfortunately, so far our resources are limited.)

We have detailed below the children whom have benefited from the funds collected so far:

The remainder of the funds collected (700 USD) were left with the Haematology Department to be used for the most critical cases which arise.

(Note: Because the hospital has such a small budget it is unable to provide many medicines to the patients, as a result the children's parents have to purchase medication from commercial distributors at western prices.)

In addition to delivering the funds we also brought a huge bag packed with second hand children's clothes and toys kindly donated by some friends in Amsterdam. These were distributed amongst the children currently undergoing treatment for leukaemia in the Haematology department.

That concluded the end of our first visit to the hospital at Simferopol and the successful completion of our first major action. We will of course be monitoring the development and hopefully positive progress of each of the children.