May 25: The project “Child’s Smile”: UNICEF and Amway have opened a sensor room and one-of-a-kind mobile room in Orenburg and Biysk
UNICEF and Amway continue joint implementation of their project “Child’s Smile”. Under this project, specially equipped play rooms and sensor rooms for children are to be set up at social and medical centers all over Russia. This time, the country’s first ever mobile room has been launched in the city of Biysk, Altai territory, while in Orenburg, another sensor room was set up recently. Biysk The mobile room is actually a minibus fitted with folding play modules, various pieces of sport equipment and brightly colored development toys made of safe and ecologically pure materials. The mobile room was created to enable professionals to provide outreach diagnostic assistance and counseling to residents in the neighboring residential areas. Some 15,000 persons annually will now have a chance to receive counseling and participate in rehabilitation sessions and festive activities. In July 2008, three playrooms and one sensor room were set up and are now successfully functioning at social and medical facilities in the Altai territory (the cities of Barnaul and Biysk). The Altai Territorial Main Directorate for Social Welfare and Elimination of the Consequences of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing has provided considerable support for the implementation of this project.
Orenburg On May 20, with the assistance of the Orenburg Ministry of Health and Social Development, a sensor room and a small gym were launched at the Children’s Oncology Centre as part of the Orenburg Regional Clinical Oncology Centre. The Oncology Centre provides integrated diagnostics and treatment of children and adolescents with malignant tumors. The average duration of children’s stay at the centre is 6 to 8 months with short breaks. A prolonged stay in hospital has an adverse effect on psychoemotional conditions of children, which, in its turn, negatively impacts the treatment process. In this context, the Centre arranges rational psychotherapy sessions for children and adolescents to relieve their emotional tension. Play psychotherapy sessions are arranged for preschool children and primary school-aged children. The availability of a specially equipped sensor room would allow to improve the quality of life of young patients during their stay in hospital. Group and family psychotherapy sessions will be conducted in the sensor room, as well as sessions using fairy tales in therapy, music therapy and aromatherapy techniques. Moreover, under the major charitable project “a Child’s Smile”, UNICEF and Amway have set up a small gym at the Centre’s request. Fitness machines would help adolescents to stay in good shape and find occupation for their restless bodies during several months of their staying in hospital. About 100 young patients are expected to visit the sensor room during the year, with about 30 adolescents having fitness sessions in the small gym. The “Child’s Smile” is a joint UNICEF/Amway project, which is scheduled to be completed during a three-year period (2008-2010). Throughout the entire implementation period, about 60 play and sensor rooms are expected to be set up at medical and social centers all over Russia. Presently, play and sensor rooms have already been launched and are successfully operating, bringing joy to children, in Biysk, Barnaul, Nizhny Novgorod, St.Petersburg, Lomonosov, Orsk, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Chelyabinsk, Petrozavodsk, Irkutsk, Sayansk, Angarsk and Cheremkhovo. Another playroom is scheduled for opening in Yarovoye (a town in the Altai territory) in late May 2009.
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