The public organization Evum was founded in February 2020 by people who started their volunteer journey back in 2015, when there was a surge in leukemia for which no one was prepared. At that time, in the children’s hospital, patients with oncohematological diseases were in the pediatric department next to other children, which complicated the treatment process. But then it was not the only problem: due to the beginning of the war, medicines were not purchased in time in the required volume, which contributed to the war.
Then the volunteers became the mouthpiece of children and their parents, trying to convey this problem to society and the media. We built relationships with donors, accumulated funds in order to solve the problems with medicines and consumables and help in the treatment of children, to give them a chance for recovery and the opportunity for a full life. Conducted advocacy campaigns, influencing local authorities and the government, aimed at unblocking medicines for the treatment of children. For this purpose, they united together with other organizations, clusters and signed memorandums of cooperation.
In 2016, our initiative group of volunteers created the project “Oncobuterfly” and launched a fundraiser for the opening of an oncology unit at the pediatric department of the Chernihiv Regional Children’s Hospital. With the support of benefactors, more than UAH 150,000 was collected, thanks to which it was possible to achieve the set goal.
At that time, the work was carried out with the support of the Vadim Nesterchuk charitable foundation, whose representative in the city of Chernihiv was our friend Tetyana Shurubura, who made titanic efforts to open a separate oncology and hematology unit at the hospital.
With its appearance, children and parents have the opportunity to be treated where they live or near where they live, as well as to see their relatives more often, because chemotherapy lasts more than eight months. Moreover, a separate playroom was organized for small patients, birthday parties and various leisure activities began to be held. This was the beginning of a long and winding path that led to the emergence of the hematological oncology department, but this is a completely different story that we will definitely tell about.