On St. Nicholas Day, First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska visited the rehabilitation center of the Vidchui NGO.
Since 2011, this institution has been providing rehabilitation and socialization services for children and adults, as well as promoting the rights of people with hearing disabilities and their families. Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, the center has launched a rehabilitation program for military personnel with hearing loss.
The center is unique because of its team. More than 70% of the correctional teachers are mothers of hard-of-hearing children. They have experienced their children’s rehabilitation, and now understand the families like no other and can help them effectively.
On the occasion of St. Nicholas Day, the Olena Zelenska Foundation donated an interactive table to this institution. This device will help children with hearing and speech disabilities to learn and develop communication skills.
Cooperation with the Vidchui organization began in 2023. At that time, the team of the Olena Zelenska Foundation procured and delivered 500 hearing aids to residents of the de-occupied cities and villages of Kyiv and Chernihiv oblasts.
“Sometimes this is called a 'silent' trauma because there are more 'visible' and urgent ones. But hearing loss, whether congenital or acquired during the war, is as much of a problem that requires attention as any other injury or diagnosis. People have to learn about the world and master living in it from scratch. There are no 'silent' traumas or diagnoses. It is simply important for all of us to be heard and to learn ways to feel others,” the First Lady emphasized.