Dear member of the MAD family,
Today my thoughts are very much with you, your family, and your wellbeing.
As you follow the mandatory shelter-at-home order, I invite you to take a minute to reflect on what “isolation” means for you now. How hard is it for you? How does it make you feel? What are you missing?
For the past five years, thanks to your generous donations and contributions, MAD-Aid has managed to keep 61 children with special needs out of isolation. They had been locked within four walls; some of them for as long as six to nine years, others up to 12 or 14. Every single day of their young lives, without a hope or a light at end of their tunnel, they lived in isolation, unable to go outdoors to see the sun or moon, the changing seasons.
Together we gave them freedom; we gave them a measure of independence. Please, in this hard moment, remember that you cared enough to end this kind of isolation for someone in this world. Can you put a price to that? You tell me.
Phoenix Centre is closed for now to protect the children, as they are more vulnerable. However, we keep them engaged in our online chat group.
I can assure you, the day when on national TV it was announced that the stay-at-home order was extended to the middle of May, not just the three weeks originally planned, they cried. Over time they have become more confident; now they do tell stories and look forward to the day the Phoenix doors open again.
Of course, the pandemic has also affected the status of our Phoenix Home and Phoenix Pool. In February, a team of teachers from the US, Mark and Cristina Ferguson, came to give workshops to upgrade the caretaking skills of our staff in Phoenix. And construction on the hydrotherapy pool was ongoing. Then came March, bringing COVID-19 to Moldova, and everything came to a screeching halt.
In Moldova, the situation with the pandemic is sadder than in the more developed parts of Europe. The decades of underdevelopment and neglect of the medical system are fully exposed and provide extraordinary challenges to meeting the current needs.
A couple of weeks ago, MAD-Aid was asked by two local civic activists and a local government to help raise funds and provide logistical support. Our group’s aim was to encourage the frontline medical teams–doctors, nurses, ambulance crews, caregivers, laboratory technicians—by providing them with basics.
Our original goal was to give them water, tea, and coffee. But thanks to the generous donations from over 2,000 individual and corporate donors, we were able to purchase and deliver ventilators, hematology analyzer, ECG equipment, tons of soap and disinfectant, and tens of thousands of gloves, masks, and personal protective equipment. Sourcing all that has been a challenge in itself, when the entire globe is looking for the same items.
MAD-Aid will keep going the best we can, we will stay steadfast and strong, and we hope in these difficult times you too will stay strong, healthy, and able to continue to support us.
Keep SAFE! Keep healthy! Keep strong!
We are in this together!
Victoria
with the MAD-Aid family