Members of the council of the Sverdlovsk Regional Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs have named the beneficiary of the annual charity evening "Catherine Assembly - 2018". This year, the money raised through the project will be used to provide seriously ill children with portable mechanical ventilation devices. The Rusfond. IVL project was selected out of 38 applicants to become a beneficiary of the Catherine Assembly.
The goal of the Rusfond. IVL project is to provide children with portable devices for use at home. According to the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, up to two thousand children in the country suffer from diseases that are accompanied by respiratory disorders and require regular use of ventilators. These children constantly need artificial ventilation, in some cases the device is needed for life. With the help of mobile devices, young patients will be able to leave the walls of the hospital and spend more time with their families. In addition, a personal portable ventilator helps to avoid severe and fatal seizures.
“The fund's experts supervise ten families from the Sverdlovsk region, for whom we have purchased portable ventilators. Our wards go to school, go to the pool, communicate with their peers. Without devices, children are locked in intensive care, where they do not receive the care of their parents, they live alone, without love and family, said Natalya Kovpak, head of the Rusfond bureau in the Sverdlovsk region.
The cost of one ventilator and consumables ranges from 1.2 to 2.5 million rubles, depending on the indications and necessary components.
“Every week the intensive care unit receives new requests concerning children with an urgent need for portable ventilators. According to expert estimates, the average growth rate is 50 children per year. To date, 25 children are under constant supervision at the Regional Children's Clinical Hospital 1,”said Elena Sapego, a neurologist of the outgoing consultative aid department for children with palliative conditions of the CSTO 1.
The Catherine Assembly, created in 2011 at the initiative of Dmitry Pumpyansky, President of the Sverdlovsk Regional Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, will be held for the eighth time this year. Traditionally, the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, members of the regional government, deputies of the Legislative Assembly, entrepreneurs, politicians, and cultural figures take part in it. The event is timed to coincide with St. Catherine's Day and traditionally takes place in the first decade of December. The central event of the Assembly is a large charity auction at which items from private collections of businessmen, politicians, athletes, musicians and artists are exhibited as lots. The funds collected during the auction in the form of a grant are used for the implementation of the selected charitable project.
“We all remember our childhood with joy. Unfortunately, the guys who are now in the hospital cannot afford the simple joys of children - being with their parents, communicating with their peers, walking in the fresh air. Participants of the "Catherine Assembly-2018" have a unique opportunity to change the lives of many children for the better. The more we raise funds, the more children will have the opportunity to live a full life,”said Mikhail Cherepanov, First Vice President of the SOSPP.
Let us remind you that over the years, the beneficiaries of the "Catherine Assembly" were projects aimed at helping completely different categories of people. So, in 2017, the beneficiary of the Catherine Assembly was a unique project for the accompanied employment of people with disabilities "Workshops of Unlimited Opportunities", developed by the specialists of the Special People Association. The goal of the project is socialization and vocational guidance of people with disabilities through labor and creative activities. More than 23 million rubles were collected for the implementation of this project. In 2016, participants in a traditional charity event managed to raise 11.3 million rubles, which were used to organize a reference center for early diagnosis and treatment of leukemia in children at the Regional Children's Clinical Hospital 1 in Yekaterinburg. The project is part of the Give Life Foundation program to decentralize the provision of high-tech medical care to children with cancer in Russia.
