Project Update 10 October 2017

We have received a letter of gratitude from Vlad’s parents who wrote that Vlad is having his second week of therapy at the Olinek Clinic in Poland and is making very good progress! Here are some great photos of the cheerful little boy learning lots of new skills.

Project Update 25 September 2017

We are delighted to announce that the required funds for Vlad’s rehabilitation have now been raised and transferred to the Olinek Clinic in Poland ($3, 320 AUD). We thank our generous donors and the enthusiastic group of people who have organised an “Active Evening” charity event that raised $532.00 towards Vlad’s rehabilitation. We have also allocated $1,163.00 of the funds raised at the “Fairytales with Gluhwein” event, recently hosted by the Little Cloud Foundation, towards this cause.

About this project

We are announcing a new project to raise funds for a delightful 3 year old boy- Vladyslav Kovalskiy (Kherson, Ukraine). Vlad has a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy (static tetraplegia) with impaired motor function and developmental delays.

This is the abbreviated version of the story shared by his mother:

Vlad is our first, long-awaited child. After what seemed like a normal pregnancy, he was born preterm at 32 weeks of gestation, appearing to cope well in the first several hours after birth. However, Vlad’s health began to quickly deteriorate after the initial 6 hours and he had to spend the next 13 days in the Intensive Care Unit. He was then transferred to the hospital department for preterm children where Vlad continued the slow process of growth and recovery. Unfortunately, his development did not progress as expected. Vlad did not reach the early milestones of crawling, sitting independently or walking, just like the other children. At the age of one, he was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and granted a disability status.

In this timeframe, we have been involved in multiple rehabilitation programs, had ongoing home-based therapy and trialled several medications. The intensive treatment has been fruitful, and we can see Vlad making notable gains with each course of rehabilitation. He gained strength, became more active, is getting better at sitting and standing with support. He began saying his first words and can now follow simple instructions.

Vlad has learned to express anger and laugh with excitement. He has even learned to hold a spoon and drink from a cup. The medical staff is very happy with Vlad’s progress, but we need to work hard to maintain these gains and support further growth. For us, each day is a battle to help Vlad lead a life without being bound to a wheel chair. As a mother, I am grateful thinking that he will not remember all the pain and tears that he had to suffer in the first few years of life.
This year, we had rehabilitation at the Olinek Clinic in Poland. This was a wonderful experience and we were most impressed by the choice of treatment and the experience of staff. Looking at the outcomes, we feel that this approach to Vlad’s treatment and rehabilitation is far more sophisticated than what he can access locally.

Vlad’s family is in the process of raising funds for the second treatment at the Olinek clinic in Poland. This will involve two consequent courses of rehabilitation with a several-week interval. The first course is scheduled for the 25 August 2017 and the second course has been organised for the 13 November 2017. The Little Cloud Foundation has offered to raise the funds for the first rehabilitation course. The required amount is 9, 405 PLN or 3, 320 AUD. You can help Vlad by donating via our PayPal account with a reference “Vlad”. All the received funds will be sent directly to the Olinek Clinic.