Ukraine revisited - 2010

The Kids are saying hello Ukrainian style and a heartfelt thanks to their Scottish friends.

We are often told that our most important gift isn’t the money we donate, but the time we spend with children.

In Eastern Europe especially, children with disabilities get little official support and are often given up by their families who can’t afford to look after them.

When TACC and other Scotland fans take the time to visit these children, organising parties with bagpipes, playing with them and generally making them feel special, it can mean the world.

So we thought it would be good to go back to the school for blind and partially-sighted children in Kiev that we’d visited in 2006 – to see how the children are doing now and how we could help them again.

Trustees Ally Hunter and Alex Demianczuk travelled to Kiev* with a £5,000 grant, and another £5,000 that we’d arranged through another Trust.

What our grants are providing

We specifically asked the school to use the TACC grant in a way that would bring tangible fun and happiness to the children.

They were happy to agree and our grant will be used to provide the following toys, games and activities suitable for blind and partially-sighted children, plus several away day trips:

- Play kits for adventure and role-playing game

- Mosaics sets

- Paints (gouache, water colours), brushes, wax and modelling clay, drawing paper

- Inflatable ball pond for the play area

- Interactive playmat

- Ladybird & tadpole didactic toy sets

- Grasshopper and Traffic Rules educational games

- Day trips to the circus, dolphinarium and ostrich farm

- Visit to Christmas decorations factory plus a toy for each child

Additionally TACC approach a Trust in Kiev called the Kiev Lions Club, asking them to match our donation.

They did, and their £5,000 will provide the school with much needed medical provisions and glasses.

The school’s Patron is photographer Alina Kisina, long time Edinburgh resident. She said of the donations “Your work is absolutely life changing for the kids, it also teaches them one of the most important lessons you can learn in life...the fact that somewhere so far away somebody cares about them so much and travels all the way to bring their gift to them...I'm sure they will pass on the goodness when they grow up...

About the school

In 2006 when TACC (then known as TartanKiev) was searching for a good cause for our first major donation we came across the school for blind and partially-sighted children in Kiev.

We were aware of how children with disabilities can at times be excluded from society and removed from families that can’t afford to look after them. However what really touched us about the school was that they focus on giving the children skills to take with them into adulthood, for when they leave the school and have to make a living for themselves.

They focus on handicraft, painting and musical skills, and in fact the children have won several musical awards. We even sold some of their paintings last year in Edinburgh.