Centre for Arts and Play work in Palliative Care
I want to help
It takes a whole community to help patients live each day to the best of their ability. That's why we need your support. Whether it's a one-time donation, long-term financial support, or even hosting a fundraising event - any support will be greatly appreciated!
Bank account:
2602766686 / 2010
IBAN: CZ09 2010 0000 0026 0276 6686
If you would like to receive a donation receipt at the end of the year, please include your name and email address as part of the message to the recipient. Alternatively, get in touch at the end of the year and we will arrange everything.
One-time donation
One-time donations help us mainly with the purchase of items that are quickly used up during play work with the patients (e.g. wax pads, stickers, bubble blowers, notebooks, watercolor papers, clean correspondence cards and stamps,...). They also allow us to continuously purchase aids that we donate to the families so that they can work with them themselves in difficult moments (e.g. medical play dolls, sensory bags and Pairs, anti-stress balls and aids, printed materials to prepare children for interventions,...).
Regular contribution
Through regular donations, we can equip children's wards in hospitals with high-quality play equipment and train doctors and nurses to use them skillfully in their work. Regular contributions also allow us to expand the team of Vlaštovka with new play specialists so that we can fly to see more families at their homes, in more hospitals and hospices. And because play work is not currently covered by insurance, these contributions allow for the families to have access to our programs and services free of charge.
Why do we appreciate a financial gift a little more than donated toys?
It may not always be easy to determine the right material or type of toys that are appropriate for a hospital environment or for a particular type of examination. But at Vlaštovka we have a lot of experience and know what toys and aids to choose to make them the best fit for children. It is important to us to bring quality materials and tasteful toys that fit our aesthetic to children, and we like to support Czech manufacturers and handmade products. Our favourite items are from natural matrials, which make the hospital environment more welcoming and comfortable, such as wood, fabrics, sand, stones... It goes without saying that in wards where everything needs to be carefully disinfected and 100% sterile, we use other materials as well, but we choose them carefully and always consult with the nursing staff.
We have experience with how a hospital operates, with the durability of equipment, we know what toys children like and play with, and which ones not so much. That's why we like to choose them ourselves. We know that every carefully chosen and tested item will be used meaningfully, to its full potential, frequently and happily. And so we don't want to get caught up in things that are well-intentioned but would just sit in storage.
„Batůžky herních specialistů“
Both Vlaštovka child life specialists carries several backpacks and a large number of special play aids for the pediatric patients. Why does they need several backpacks? Because they see many children during the day and each one needs something completely different.
So it may be that they start with six-month-old Toník, for whom they play the wind chimes and sing to support him when he is separated from his parents, who cannot be with him in the hospital. Then they go to five-year-old Honzík, with whom they are "putting on the operation" that awaits him this afternoon, to understand why he will wake up in a different room after the operation and how he will feel about it. Then they carry on to see seven-year-old Háňa, who has a brother undergoing chemotherapy, so he plays with her in the sandbox and they build magic castles together. Before lunch, they stop at the home of twelve-year-old Oliver, who has autism spectrum disorder, with whom they read from a book and act out the story of the lost sheep with a hand puppet, accompanied by various sounds and smells. After lunch, the play specialist then goes to visit the parents of Klárka, who received a serious diagnosis a week ago, and talks to them about what Klárka likes and what they would like to experience with her in the near future. At the end of the day, they visit 16-year-old Adam, who is afraid of needles, and together they brainstorm how best to handle the upcoming blood draw. They then work together to solve a puzzle on a tablet during the procedure.
During the day, the play specialist visits children with different needs, at different ages, with different interests. That's why they have several backpacks and each one is used for something entirely different. In one there are aids to provide distraction from an unpleasant procedure, in another musical instruments, in a third there is a doll and a medical bag with supplies for medical play, in a fourth art supplies to enhance the room space or to illustrate the joy of a successful surgery. One backpack simply wouldn't be enough.