Emilia was born 15 weeks prematurely, weighing 490 grams and measuring 22 cm tall. The birth was an emergency as the mother and the baby were at risk of death due to internal organ failure.
Immediately after the birth Emilia’s weight dropped to 430 grams. She was on a ventilator for 4 weeks and then on oxygen support for another month and a half. At the age of a month and a half Emilija had an eye operation, which had to be repeated after 2 months, but thanks to this the vision was preserved.
At the age of 7 months the doctors allowed her to start rehabilitation. From that moment till today her mother takes Emilija 3 times a week for massages, medical gymnastics and 2 times a week for swimming. Once a month an osteopath works with Emilija. In addition Emilija takes part in developmental work twice a week (sensory integration, neuropsychology, communication group).
Emilia is alone with her mother, she has no siblings. She wants to communicate and play with children in the playground, but unfortunately Emilia does not walk herself. The main diagnosis, cerebral palsy, was given to Emilia at the age of 1. Before that, geneticists and other doctors said that Emilia would never stand on her feet and that she would have problems with her head.
After working hard, Emilia can walk on her tiptoes along the support. This is a huge success — her parents were originally told that their daughter would be reclining. Emilia is very fond of intellectual toys and books. Already now she knows and recognises letters. But Emilia’s legs are spastic and she cannot straighten them.
This little girl wants and dreams to walk but she needs an operation and long term rehabilitation.
Only through the operation Emilia will be able to get back on her feet and be a normal child.
Emilija’s mother cannot work yet, because she has to take care of Emilija every day. Her dad works as a milling machine operator. He is now working 6−7 days a week with part-time work, as the treatment costs a lot of money. But this operation is not affordable for them.
Let’s help Emilija to get to surgery to start walking!

Little Kamola was born 13 weeks prematurely in Uzbekistan, weighing 1,200 grams. Her condition at birth was severe. So she was in the intensive care unit for almost a month, then in the neonatal pathology unit until she was 2 months old. She and her mother were discharged from the hospital on 21 April 2021.

When Kamola was diagnosed with eye pathology — retinopathy of prematurity — at the age of 7 months, the disease had already reached its final stage: both eyes had detached retina. This means blindness.

Such children cannot yet be helped in Uzbekistan. But operations for retinopathy of prematurity are performed in Russia. In May and June 2022 Kamola underwent her first operation at the St Petersburg Children’s Clinical Hospital in the department of eye microsurgery. It helped save her eyes as an organ, but another operation is needed to restore the girl’s sight. A fee is charged for Uzbek citizens. Kamola’s mother raises her daughter alone, and she cannot afford to pay for the operation.

For now, Kamola can only play if she is given toys directly into her hands. She feels them and calms down. Let’s give this little girl the joy of seeing her mother and the whole beautiful bright world!

Emilia is the youngest of the twins and was born 9 weeks early weighing 860 grams and 31 cm tall. The birth was premature by caesarean section due to Emilia’s intrauterine hypoxia. After the birth Emilia was immediately admitted to the intensive care unit. The baby spent 14 days on a ventilator and continued receiving oxygen support until she was 2 months old. During this time Emilia underwent heart surgery — clipping of the patent ductus arteriosus. But during this time Emilie suffered a brain haemorrhage. Soon after the girl was finally able to go home, her mother organised rehabilitation sessions for her daughter. This was very necessary, because already at 4 and a half months, it was clear that Emilia had a developmental delay.

At first these were classes at home, then hospitalisation in state institutions and then classes in commercial centres. Unfortunately, free rehabilitation in state institutions had no effect, but rather worsened the general state of the child. At one year and three months her mother began the process of registration of disability, and at one year and six months Emilia received disability until the age of 18.

Emilia is now four years old. Currently she can crawl and holds her head. She cannot sit or walk on her own. In January this year Emilia has had a serious injury, a fracture of the right femur because of very high spasticity. The girl had an operation and two titanium elements were inserted. After the operation Emilia was in a cast for 6 weeks. After the cast was removed, rehabilitation sessions were started immediately to regain her skills and to develop her leg. In April this year Emilia began regular sessions with a speech therapist and a speech pathologist — 2 times a week, which helped to improve cognitive functions, fine and gross motor skills. Now Emilia is learning the alphabet, speaks simple sentences and learns nursery rhymes and songs.

Rehabilitation needs Emilia to tone down the tone in her limbs (because strong spasticity prevents Emilia to work properly with arms and legs), to develop and improve cognitive functions, fine and gross motor skills, to develop independence skills, self-service and socialization, to be able to attend kindergarten, school and university independently in the future.

Unfortunately her mother cannot afford to pay the full amount of tuition, as she is bringing up Emilia and her twin sister Sophia on her own, without her husband. The family lives on disability pension, social benefits and alimony from the girls' father. The mother cannot go out to work at the moment, as she is taking care of a disabled child and her profession (warehouse logistics) does not allow her to work remotely. Therefore she has to ask for help in order to cover the high costs of the yearly rehabilitation.

Emilia needs 20 000 $ a year for rehabilitation. And that is just classes at the medical centre — massage, physical therapy, speech therapy, neuropsychologist, osteopath, conductive pedagogy, body therapist, sensory integration. Emilia’s mother bought all the necessary technical equipment and exercise machines for rehabilitation at home at her own expense.

Let’s help Emilia to enjoy active life together with her peers!

Juliana, the second of the twins, was born 12 weeks early weighing only 1100 grams and 37 cm tall. 

Her condition at birth was assessed as very serious. The baby was immediately taken to the Intensive Care Unit, placed in a quasi-coffin, and transferred to ventilator. On the second day, Juliana's condition deteriorated sharply due to a pneumothorax and brain haemorrhage. After this crisis condition, after surviving, Juliana began to slowly recover, but was still being examined, gaining weight and treated for up to two months of her life.

On discharge the ophthalmologist recommended that all physical activities such as massage and exercise should be postponed due to the risk of retinal detachment. As soon as the danger had passed, Juliana and her mother started active physical exercise at six months of age. Until one year of age they hoped to cope and avoid complications. But, unfortunately, after one year, Juliana was still diagnosed with cerebral palsy, spastic diplegia, and was given a disability.

Since then her mother struggles endlessly to improve her daughter's physical condition - they work both at home and in rehabilitation centres. Julia has to work very hard, sometimes through pain. Today Julia can walk on her own, but her right foot cannot put her heel. This causes secondary complications: pelvic misalignment, curvature of the spine, contractures. Juliana cannot move fully, often stumbles, falls, gets tired quickly. Her legs began to hurt when walking and standing in one place. Juliana cannot walk for more or less long distances without mobility aids.

However, Juliania has a fully retained intellect. She loves to learn new things. Now she is engaged in many groups: musical studio in the class of piano and guitar, spoon band, floristry, woodcarving, fine arts, modeling with salt dough and clay. She is fond of horses, that is why together with her sister she is engaged in equestrian-sports school for children with disabilities. Recently she took 2nd place in a competition! It was her debut. For the first time she passed her first test in music with honours!

Julia dreams of going to a regular school to socialise with other children, but at the same time she is afraid, because she has begun to feel shy about her "peculiarity". In spite of her physical limitation and young age Julia loves to help her mother around the house and already, as a little specialist-defectologist, works with her twin sister (who is more physically handicapped) when her mother is busy. She is learning to read, write and count - preparing for school.

But without surgical treatment, Juliana's complications such as spinal curvature, pelvic misalignment, worsening contractures and hip problems are inevitable. At this point most of these have already started to manifest themselves. Today's rehabilitations are unfortunately no longer progressing and improving the quality of walking. They are mainly aimed at preventing complications.

All orthopaedic doctors in Russia, and parents have been around quite a lot, unequivocally recommend various orthopaedic operations. But they are all very traumatic, carried out on nerves with tendon dissection, or muscle incisions. After these interventions, repeated operations are likely to be necessary as the child grows and the scars remain, and these do not stretch along with the muscle and bone growth.

A professor in Germany suggested a less traumatic operation for Juliana and gave a good prognosis. This is exactly the kind of operation that is not performed in Russia. The doctor will be able to operate on Juliana in Georgia, where the cost of the operation will be much lower.

Until now the parents have tried to cope on their own. But this is an unaffordable amount of money for Juliana's family, especially taking into account that they have another daughter, who is in even more serious condition and undergoes recurrent paid rehabilitation. That is why they are forced to ask for people who care about them. With great gratitude they will accept any help and will pray for all kind people helping all those in need.