We are launching a new campaign, we don’t know its end and how broad it will become. This is Project Firefly.
1.
Children’s feelings, a friendly hospital environment, preserving the social integration of hospitalized children – this is Project Firefly.
The treatment and recovery of child patients depend not only on the living conditions in the hospital and the quality of treatment, but also on the emotional state of the child.
Getting seriously sick is a huge stress for any child and their family. This is further enhanced by the fact that the child is removed from their usual daily environment and routine. Medical manipulations and isolation become the new and incomprehensible everyday routine for the child, and this greatly increases the risk of lasting emotional trauma.
Psychologists describe the perfect healing environment for sick children as “a hospital that does not look like one” which can have tremendous influence on the quality and the speed of the healing process.
Firefly’s objective is to change the emotional environment in order to improve the treatment of child patients:
2.
Firefly – colorful, cheerful, cozy and sometimes noisy
With the previous campaigns of Za Dobroto Project and Za Dobroto Foundation we improved the material conditions for patient treatment – we repaired wards, installed air conditioners, blinds, provided medical equipment, specialized cots, venoscopes, ultrasounds, etc. The most significant change for children, however, were the painted walls in the rooms and corridors. Children do not comprehend the importance of equipment and apparatus, but the fairytale creatures on the walls are part of their familiar childhood world, attracting their attention and distracting them from frightening medical manipulations, forced stay in a foreign place, being detached from kindergarten, school and their friends.
Firefly is:
3.
Firefly – cute, empathetic and informed
The cold stethoscope, peripheral venous catheter, syringe, and the different devices scare the child. Doctors who do not explain what they are doing and why, scare both children and parents. The detachment of medical staff, often attributed to not having time to spare or attempting to protect oneself emotionally from the daily encounter of illness and pain, literally harms all participants in the treatment process, leads to confrontations between the medical staff, parents and children, and further complicates treatment.
Firefly is awareness:
Firefly is sympathy:
Firefly is empathy:
4.
Firefly is a choice
The information about Firefly will reach all hospitals with children’s wards. It is up to them whether they would like to apply and create their own Firefly.
They would need to provide a room for the Firefly space that does not need major repairs, to be decorated and retrofitted with furniture and appliances.
Only in exceptional cases the project can organize minor cosmetic repairs, if the condition of the premises requires it. In special cases the project might also provide medical equipment and apparatus necessary for the normal operation of the ward.
It is necessary for the medical teams to want the change and to articulate their own ideas how to make it happen in their ward, according to its specifics. We are looking forward to receiving their motivation letters at the foundation’s email address.
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Through Project Firefly we want to change the interactions and the environment within children wards and to motivate all participants in the treatment process to put children and their best interest in the center. Furthermore, we would like to make the institutions related to child healthcare to finally assume their role of responsible and caring state stakeholders.
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For donations to Za Dobroto Foundation:
Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD
BIC : RZBBBGSF
IBAN: BG89UBBS81551012773591