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10/12/10
Charity Event “Buy a Brick” hosted by British Ambassador Leigh Turner to help Ukrainian children
On 7 December 2010, the British Ambassador Leigh Turner hosted a fundraiser charity reception in support of Partnership for Every Child initiatives. The event raised UAH 39,039 and increased awareness of the work Partnership for Every Child does to help vulnerable parents bring up children in families rather than send them to state orphanages.
The reception was attended by Ambassador of France, Ambassador of Canada and Ambassador of EC Delegation in Ukraine, heads and partners of international companies – Clifford Chance, Pulse, Credit Agricole, PROVID, ProCreditbank, Marti Ukraine, Radisson SAS, Hyatt Regency Kyiv, IMF, EBRD and others.
In his opening speech, Ambassador Turner underlined the importance of the work charities are doing. He said that the UK had a long standing tradition of charity work, with more than 190,000 charities working in partnership with the government and delivering services to local communities.
“We are delighted to see that Ukraine is also developing its own traditions and institutions to support families and children at crises. It’s my special pleasure to note that Partnership for Every Child came to Ukraine from the UK. Since then Partnership for Every Child has worked with the Government of Ukraine, piloting a number of successful projects aimed at keeping children and families together”.
Director of Partnership for Every Child Vasylyna Dybaylo explained that the charity has been working for 10 years to ensure that children are raised in caring families:
“We pay special attention to separation of children from their parents. Therefore, we support young mothers to prevent child abandonment, we help children leaving the state care on their way to independent life, and we empower parents to care better about their children”.
Following the speeches a video about a new fundraising campaign called “Buy a Brick” was shown to the guests.
The campaign seeks to raise money to complete the construction of a training center for social workers and childcare professionals in Kyiv Oblast. Video was created by PROVID agency on pro bono basis.
Tetyana Vasylenko, CEO of PROVID Group stressed that authors of the film tried to explain the vital need in skilled social workers to help children stay in their families in a plain language. She said:
“We tend to think that helping an orphanage means helping children. But in fact it isn’t only partially true. The primary cause of the problem is vulnerable families and a lack of skilled social workers to help those families overcome their difficulties.
In making the video, we tried to convey the idea that development of the professional social workforce deals with the root of the problem and might have many times longer-lasting benefits than making a regular donations to an orphanage...”
The video is available here (in English):
Guests were invited to support the initiative by buying “gold”, “silver” and “bronze” bricks or by participating in a raffle and “silent” auction immediately at the event.
Some very attractive prizes were offered:
- 2 business class flight tickets provided by Ukrainian International Airlines;
- Kyiv-London round trip flight by British Airways;
- weekend hotel stay from Hayatt Regency Kyiv Hotel;
- a bottled of collection wine of 1955 by Massandra;
- gift certificates from Mirovaya Karta, Stephano’s and Tike restaurants, “Skobel’ska’ beauty salon;
- CDs signed by Ukrainian signers – Olexander Ponomaryov and Ruslana;
- gift boxes, paintings and toys made by Ukrainian artists.
Special prize was presented to a top bidder of silent auction – 3 courses dinner to be cooked by a chef at home for 10 people from Radisson SAS Hotel.
Partnership for Every Child would like to express our gratitude to the British Embassy Charity Committee and especially to Her Majesty’s Ambassador, Leigh Turner for organizing and hosting this charity reception. Organizers also appreciate a valuable support provided by “Massandra”, “Ferrero”, Hotel Rus’, “Artmaxima” and photographer Sergiy Ilyin.
Prizes for the raffle were generously provided by: International Ukrainian Airlines, British Airways, Radisson SAS Hotel, Hayatt Regency Kyiv Hotel, Mirovaya Karta, “Massandra”, Tike restaurant, Stephano’s restaurant, Crystall Hall, “Skobel’ska” beauty salon, Dim kavy, “Z ranku do nochi’ studio, bookstore “E”, Ruslana, artist Kateryna Omel’chuk, artists Tetyana Maurova, Nataliya Dmytrenko, Valentyna Sokolik, Nataliya Svyrydyuk, Alla Tymoshenko, Anna Petushyns’ka.
All the funds raised during the event were transferred to support social programmes aimed at prevention of child separation, abandonment and placement into orphanages.
Photo coverage of the event is available here:
More detailed information available from:
Oksana Shved, communications manager, Partnership for Every Child: o.shved@p4ec.org.ua, 067 234 60 97, 044 359 02 10.
