“My soul has never seen such beauty anywhere”

A good deed was performed by the benefactors from the Board of Trustees in Lviv.
Thanks to the Anti-Crisis Humanitarian Programme of the International Renaissance Foundation, a group of children whose parents are serving sentences in places of deprivation of liberty were provided with a holiday for the first time since Ukraine’s independence. The health camp was organised in a picturesque corner of Zakarpattia, in the urban-type settlement of Mizhhiria. At the “Karpaty” tourist centre, the children were provided with 2- and 3-bed rooms with all modern conveniences, sports grounds for volleyball and mini-football, a table tennis room, a conference hall, a dining room with three meals a day, a place for lighting a campfire, and a children’s playground.
Ten-year-old Tania came to rest with her brother Sashko from the village of Ruda in the Turiisk district of the Volyn region. Upon her arrival, she recorded the following impressions:
“When I arrived here, I found many friends. It is very beautiful here. I have been to other camps, but I liked this one the most. That is because there are many different games and excursions here. I didn’t even imagine that it would be this good here.”
Inspired by what she saw, Tania wrote a poem:
Краєвид чудовий бачу я:
Гори в смерічках,
Річка, мов стрічка,
Цілюща водиця
Із гір вниз тече.
Стою і милуюсь
Краси такої
Не бачила
Моя душа ніде.
During the camp’s operation, the children wrote creative works, drew, wove wreaths, gathered medicinal plants, held children’s discos, various types of sports competitions and entertainment, and sang by the campfire. The children were greatly impressed by excursions to Lake Synevyr, the Shypit waterfall, the Tereblia-Rika Hydroelectric Power Plant, the Museum of Verkhovyna Architecture in the village of Kolochava, and the reindeer farm.
Interestingly, the group also included children from large and low-income families of employees of internal affairs bodies and penal institutions.
The holiday became truly familial. The children lived harmoniously; the older ones helped the younger ones and looked after them. In their feedback about the holiday, the children expressed a wish to come to Mizhhiria again next summer.

Valentyn Zbyral, member of the Public Council under the State Department of Ukraine for the Execution of Sentences in the Lviv region