SoftServe Charity Fund Opens ‘Positive Room’ at Dnipro Regional Children's Hospital

DNIPRO, Ukraine—May 6, 2021—SoftServe's corporate charity fund, “Open Eyes" has opened a "Positive Room" for patients of the Dnipro Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital. The Positive Room in Dnipro, the sixth such space in Ukraine, was opened at the Department of Reconstructive Surgery thanks to charitable donations by SoftServe, its employees, and other contributors. The Department helps as many as 30 children at a time recover from the most serious, life-threatening illnesses.

“We treat children with the most serious diseases: congenital malformations, chemical burns of the esophagus, disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, and tumors requiring surgery,” said Oleksandr Gladkyi, head of the Department of Reconstructive Surgery of Dnipro Regional Children's Clinical Hospital. “The room is a kind of island in their hospital routine, where children can spend quality time with animators and volunteers, who help take their minds off illness."

“Children from birth to age 18 are treated here,” said Yuliia Lozinska, Director of SoftServe’s Dnipro office. “Each of them spends from several weeks to months on end at this hospital. This is a time when they can study, play, and make new friends with their peers. That is why we have created a comfortable space within the hospital that will provide children with opportunities for recreation, entertainment, and study.”

Children who have been undergoing lengthy treatments are missing out on kindergarten or school. These young patients miss opportunities to communicate and play with peers, thus affecting their socialization. To address this, SoftServe’s Open Eyes team set out on a mission to create zones dedicated to children's education and recreation.

According to Roman Perepichka, project coordinator at the charity fund, the design and functionality of the room were the result of cooperation between doctors from many departments and two designers, Alyona Chursynova and Mariia Melets, who specialize in designing inclusive spaces at hospitals. Young patients can now use the room as their space for play and study. Teachers come to teach various classes and have workshops, which were some of the main goals behind creating the Positive Room.

The Positive Rooms project started in October 2017. It was then that the Fund opened the first Positive Room space in Poland at the Wrocław Children's Clinic of Endocrinology and Diabetology in partnership with the Pozytywne.com Association. After successful completion, the decision was made to implement a similar project in Ukraine. The spaces vary in size depending on the provisions of a particular institution, and each features zoning created in cooperation with designers, doctors, teachers, psychologists, and other professionals.

The Open Eyes Charity Fund is currently raising donations through a fundraising platform to open another Positive Room in Lviv. Fundraising also began in 2021 to fund two more Positive Rooms in Kyiv and Chernivtsi.

About Open Eyes Charity Fund

SoftServe founded the Open Eyes Charity Fund in 2014. Initially, the Fund served as an internal platform to help raise funds and assist SoftServe’s associates in implementing charitable projects that they would also join as volunteers. In 2017, the fundraising platform at www.openeyes.org.ua was opened to external donors. Since then, both SoftServe’s associates and anyone interested have had the opportunity to support the Fund's charitable initiatives.