Children dream of seeing Ukraine

"Mom, why do they always show Kyiv on TV? Let's go and see it – they were telling us in school today that the Kyivan Rus state was founded in Kyiv. It must look beautiful there, and it also has heroes and history!" – "I'm sorry, son, but it's too expensive… Maybe later…" I tell my son, but I know we don't even have enough money to buy the train tickets… After this conversation Misha looked sad for a long time. Later I found out that other children in his school tease him, saying that he's poor and hasn't seen anything. Maybe that's true, but even without excursions and iPads he's one of the best pupils.

When I came to the "Happy Child" foundation for help, I found out that I wasn't the only person in this kind of situation. There are many low-income families in Zaporizhzhia, families in which the parents can't give their children anything besides their love and the bare necessities.

Perhaps you will say that is enough? Perhaps, but children are the people who will build our future and it's very unfair that they are unable to see our past,  because those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it. Our foundation wants to organize a field trip to Kiev as part of the field trip outreach movement "Ball of yarn". This outreach movement organizes field trips for children from low-income families, to inspire the young individuals and to make their fondest dreams come true. The children who will visit Ukraine's capital had never left their towns before, but in their imagination every one of them, just like my Misha, have visited dozens of places all over the world. The Shevchenko Park, the Golden Gates, the Sophievsky Square, the Landscape Alley and the expected Maidan at the end.

Let's all help the gifted 30 children, ages 8 to 16, finally to be able to for the first time in their lives to visit the city where history is happening! We can't do this without you. Give our children the gift of a little bit of happiness – perhaps this field trip will be the best one in their lives, only because it will be their very first field trip!