Children from the Good Heart orphanage visited the club’s Academy, where they took part in various workshops and received gifts.

Football club Ruh, together with the Diplomats Charitable Foundation and the support of Emily Resort, held a charity event for kids from the Good Heart orphanage. The children had the opportunity to enjoy a variety of entertainment and get acquainted with the football academy.

“This institution is located in the village of Novyi Myliatyn, Zolochiv district. Currently, 37 children live there. We communicate with them and ask them what they are interested in, and every time we get new answers. At first, they talked about interests imposed on them, but after working with psychologists, they became more relaxed and told us about their own desires. In accordance with these wishes, we chose the following activities for them. We are grateful to Ruh, because the club took on a lot of organizational work and invested heavily in this event and was able to give the children a lot of positive emotions. It is also valuable for us that the coaches devoted time to the boys who wanted to talk about football. I hope that we will continue to cooperate with Ruh, because it was a good teamwork and we are very happy that we managed to implement all our ideas,” said Natalia Marmulevych, co-organizer of the Children’s Dreams project.

The holiday began with greetings and introductions to the animators, who treated the kids to a variety of goodies. After that, the participants were divided into groups by age and went to the entertainment: the boys had a table tennis training, while the girls took a makeup master class. The youngest guests went to an aqua makeup session and had a great time creating various drawings.

Mariana Mamonova, a doctor from Rivne region who served as the head of the medical service of the 501st separate marine battalion, spent all this time with the children. It is important that at that time Mariana Mamonova was pregnant. In September 2022, the doctor returned to the government-controlled territories of Ukraine after the exchange, and soon gave birth to a child. She is currently involved in various charitable projects aimed at helping children.

“I work for the Diplomats charity organization, and since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, it has been helping IDPs, women and orphans. In particular, we have taken over the Good Heart orphanage. Together with FC Ruh and other partners, we agreed to organize a party for the children. Before that, we talked to the children and asked them what they wanted to see and learn. They told us about their favorite sports, so we chose a football training session. Speaking about our cooperation with Ruh, it is important because sport shapes us as individuals. Everyone chooses their favorite sport and wants to develop in this direction, and the boys mostly want to play football. I would like to wish these children to toughen up and never give up,” said Mariana Mamonova.

Later, the children were served a delicious lunch, after which they continued to be involved in various activities. The coaches of the Ruh Academy trained them and played soccer with them.

“The children performed reaction exercises, and we specially selected activities for them where they could exercise quickly and interestingly. The boys were tested for their physical abilities and attention span. They also ran around and worked with the ball, and at the end of the training, the children played soccer. The kids are great and tried hard. They want to be active in sports and football is their passion. They should continue to work in this vein and if they put in the effort, they will definitely succeed,” said Stanislav Kozak, the physical training coach of the junior age categories of AF Ruh.

At the same time, those who love drawing, creativity and bright colors went to a drawing workshop. The youngest guests enjoyed a bubble show from animators. In addition, at the end of the holiday, each child received gifts and interesting surprises.

“Together with our partners from Emily Resort and the founder of Ruh, Hryhoriy Kozlovskyy, we managed to organize an interesting and fun holiday for children. The kids had the opportunity to relax and learn more about various professions, as well as see how the football academy works. We have been cooperating with the Diplomats charity for more than a year now, and the club always tries to support such charitable initiatives. It is important for us to work in this direction, involving children in sports and helping them to find themselves and reveal themselves from all sides,” Yulia Klymentovych, Marketing Manager of FC Ruh. “This event is the realization of children’s dreams and we are very pleased that we managed to realize it. We are grateful to the Movement and each of the partners who joined the event in this difficult time and supported the children. We can see the children smiling and how happy they are that they were able to see it all. These are sincere and fantastic emotions that are hard to put into words,” shared her impressions Daryna Shtokalo, organizer of the Diplomats charity organization.