Dnipro volunteers arranged an active and bright weekend for their fellow residents: on 16–17th of September on Sicheslavska Embankment they held the fourth annual charity fair in support of the ATO. This time the volunteers decided to collect money for the Biotech’s patient, Volodymyr, under the Taxi Driver call-sign.
Dnipro volunteers have collected 8310 hryvnias in just two days! This amount (as well as all other incomings within the Biotech project) you can see in our report. Today Volodymyr is undergoing treatment in Dnipro (his intestine cut by shell fragments, is being cured using conventional medical techniques), but as soon as he arrives in the clinic next time, this money will be directed for treatment of his arm with application of cell technology.
Two days consecutively Dnipro embankment has been probably the liveliest place in the city: there were lots of hand-made items for display. Adornments made of various materials, patriotic souvenirs, dinnerware, home-made sweets and even hand-made perfumes – all of these one could buy and even learn to make oneself! The festival’s organizers provided also an entertaining part: Dini Shi musical band presented Celtic music, an open air gym offered a free training for everybody, and those eager to try assembling and re-assembling the assault rifle, could do this in a separate area. During the lottery some valuable prizes were drawn, and in the evening the charity fairs’ guests could watch a fire show and a film at the outdoor cinema theater. But photos can tell you more than words, just take a look at them!
To be honest, there were some dismaying moments as well. The fair’s coordinators admitted that last year they managed to collect three times more money than today. It seems people just lost interest in both Ukraine’s problems in general and wounded soldiers’ needs in particular, as compared to previous year. So the incident that occurred during assembling of the assault rifle, may seem quite indicative.
Nataliya Kotok, one of the fair’s coordinators, was unpleasantly surprised: “Today a woman came up and asked if assembling the assault rifle was free of charge. We replied that it was free, but a small contribution would have been welcomed as it all was for a wounded soldier who needed our support. To which she replied that she did not care about what was going on in our country, she was not just interested. But it is because of these people’s indifference for their home country we are facing the probability of a full-scale war now. It is because of their position Volodymyr got heavily wounded at war. We all should not behave like that woman”.»
We would like to share this wish: let us not be selfish and insensitive. We are sincerely grateful to Dnipro inhabitants for their help, to both volunteers-coordinators of the fair and those who donated at least a hryvnia for a decent purpose. But Volodymyr’s treatment is still on. Although together we have paid for a half of his treatment, we still need to raise more than 300 hundred hryvnias.
Photo: Mykhailo Kysenko
