Children's Hospital Fund informational centre opened at the Children's Hospital

Today, on 1 June, the Children's Hospital Fund information centre was opened in the multi-functional block of the Children`s Clinical University Hospital, and the fund presented its achievements of the past year, which saw the provision of equipment for several departments, thus improving the conditions for both patients and parents who stay at the hospital. This is the first information centre of a charity organisation in Latvia, and the fund aims to become more accessible and open to the public.

“The idea of creating a Children's Hospital Fund information centre was borrowed from foreign experience, for all the largest children’s hospitals abroad have such information centre for their charity organisation. The Children's Hospital Fund wants to become more accessible and open to the public as well – both to the children’s parents who need help and the benefactors who wish to support the work of the hospital and our small patients. Often, parents of patients look for us in the hospital territory, so such a centre will be very helpful as it is easy to find and an employee will always be present here from 9:00 – 16:00. We were very grateful that “Maxima Latvija” supported the establishment of the centre. With this donation, the support provided to the Children's Hospital Fund by “Maxima Latvija” over five years amounts to more than 300 thousand Euro,” tells Liene Dambina, Head of the Children's Hospital Foundation.

For five years now, we have been working hand-in-hand with the Children's Hospital Fund, taking care of the welfare of families and children, as this has always been one of the priorities of “Maxima Latvija”. During these years, we have helped parents of the children stay at the hospital and have participated both in the development of the childcare programme for premature babies “Drošais apmetnis” and the organisation of the hospital’s garden festival. Therefore, supporting the establishment of the Children’s Hospital Fund information centre is just the next logical step, enabling the patients, benefactors, and hospital staff to find out more about the opportunities provided by the Children’s Hospital Fund in a convenient and accessible way,” Andris Vilcmeiers, Head of Maxima Latvija, shares.

“In complicated situations, when our children become sick and are in need of help, any kind of support is necessary. And often the opportunity to get information about where and how to get this support can affect the child’s ability to get better as well as how quickly it will happen. That’s why I am delighted that from this day on, the parents will be able to get all the necessary support and information at the Children’s Hospital Fund information centre to find the best ways to help children recover as quickly as possible”, Iveta Vējone, First Lady of Latvia, emphasises.

The new Children’s Hospital Fund information centre will allow the interested parties to:

• get acquainted with the fund’s activities, current projects and donations;
• learn how the donations are used;
• talk to the fund’s employees and learn more about the opportunities to receive help;
• to donate money in the interactive donation box;
• specialists will have the opportunity to meet the fund’s employees and to receive answers to questions about their patients, thus saving their time.

In 2017, more than EUR 1 million have been attracted in donations.

Last year, the support provided to Children's Hospital Fund amounted to EUR 1 007 505. A lot has been achieved thanks to the donations, for example, support has been provided to more than 3000 children, equipment has been provided to several departments improving the conditions for both patients and parents, a new playground for patients with mobility impairment and psychological conditions has been made in the Children’s Hospital branch in “Gaiļezers”, an autism cabinet has been created for children who suffer from AST, the Mother’s Milk Bank establishment project has been launched, and the growth of the hospital’s staff has been supported as well. More on the achievements of the Children’s Hospital Fund in 2017 here: www.bsf.lv