We are talking about the charitable action of students of the Kharkiv Higher Vocational School of Garment Production and Household, volunteers.

Dear educators! Along with greetings in the New Year, we want to tell you about the action, which, perhaps, will help you to realize your place in supporting the defenders of the eastern borders of Ukraine – the soldiers of the Armed Forces. A big river starts from small streams. So it is with volunteering.

For more than one year, students of the Kharkiv Higher Vocational School of Garment Production and Household Affairs, under the guidance of masters-mentors, have been engaged in a noble cause – volunteer help to those who need material and moral support in difficult times. Orphaned children, wounded soldiers who fought as part of the joint forces in the east, and now need care and rehabilitation.

On the eve of the Day of Defenders of Ukraine, volunteers of the school visited the soldiers who were being treated at the military medical clinical center of the Northern region for the first time. At the expense of previously collected funds, they purchased hygiene products, various goodies, tea, coffee, drinking water and transferred all this to the hospital.

In the process of preparing for these visits, another idea arose. It is related to the professions taught at the educational institution: seamstress, tailor-trimmer. There is suitable equipment for this, so you can help more, especially the front-line soldiers. For example, to sew national flags, which are missing on the front lines. This opinion was supported by volunteers Olena and Stanislav Pylypenka, who also took care of the wounded in the hospital and gave speeches at the school. Previously, they also sent flags to the front, but this important symbol is still not enough, the cold winds of Donetsk quickly disable them.

Therefore, a new initiative in the educational institution was quickly discussed at a meeting of the student self-government council and, after enlisting the support of the director N.V. Batrachenko, students, and teachers, decided to immediately continue the important work. A fundraiser was announced. They bought fabrics for them and started sewing. Already a week later, Olena Pylypenko, inspecting the products, was happy with the results of the students’ work: the flags, with the support of the master of industrial training Olena Hryhorivna Datsenko, turned out to be high-quality and eloquent.

In a solemn atmosphere, the students handed over their products to experienced volunteers, so that they, decorating them with Ukrainian symbols, would deliver them to the active units of the Armed Forces.

At this time, the volunteers of the Kharkiv public association “Prosvita” were also preparing gifts. Its leader Oleksandr Tereshchenko, who had previously visited the military, agreed to deliver student flags there as well. This is how the path of patriotic products to the 54th brigade, near Maryinka, Popasna, was outlined. The gifts were handed out just in time for the New Year 2022. Along with the flags, the greetings of the girls from the school were voiced in front of the soldiers.

This made quite an impression on the soldiers. Touched, they told O. Tereshchenko that they felt as if they had met their own daughters and felt a homely atmosphere. And in response, they sent their congratulations to the students.

And the representatives of the 25th battalion of the 54th brigade named after Ivan Mazepa expressed their respect and importance of the action on the pennant handed over from the vanguard and affixed their signatures: “Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Unity is our strength! Victory is behind us!”

Such a good patriotic cause united representatives of several generations of Kharkiv residents: school pupils, experienced volunteers and patriots. She united and showed that together it is possible to do many good deeds for the benefit of the Motherland and its courageous defenders. And this is an important moment in the formation of the civic position of future workers in the household sector.

The volunteers of the school are planning new eloquent cases and new charity routes.

Ninel BATRACHENKO, Head of the Commission for Work with Youth of the Kharkiv Regional Council of Veterans of Ukraine. Director of the State Institution of Vocational (Vocational and Technical) Education “Kharkiv Higher Vocational School of Sewing Industry and Household”