At the initiative of the Fund’s founder, Anna Butkevych, and with the support of our German partners #WeAreAllUkrainians, the BGV team delivered 4,283 bright and joyful gifts to children from socially vulnerable families and families of internally displaced persons in the Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kirovohrad regions, to students of the Bucha Children’s School of Arts, as well as to young patients undergoing treatment at the “Okhmatdyt” National Children’s Specialized Hospital (NCSH).

During the celebration at the hospital, we asked the general director of NCSH “Okhmatdyt,” Volodymyr Zhovnir, to share a story that best illustrates the hospital’s work during the war. He said:

“A story? There are countless stories of miracles. One miracle is a child who was shot in the head and lived for some time where they were injured — in Mykolaiv. Only later was the child brought here. We performed surgery, removed a fragment from inside the brain — and the child survived, fully regaining both mental and physical abilities. That’s a miracle. Another miracle is that today, despite the air raids, the holiday came to the children. The gifts arrived, performers came — everyone had time to dance and sing. And only after the celebration ended did the lights go out and the air raid siren sound. Saint Nicholas gave the children light, and the Fund gave them gifts. Everyone was happy — everyone got to forget about the war, even just for a moment.”