International cooperation not only contributes to the scientific results, but also helps to understand the culture, traditions and customs of the host country. The Department of Ecology of Ukrainian National Forestry University in the person of Associate Professor Ulyana Bashutska has been cooperating with foresters of the Federal Republic of Germany for a long time, in particular in the Black Forest (Baden-Württemberg). These contacts helped to get help to four orphanages in Lviv.
Local association "Children in Chernobyl. The Registered Pfalzgrafenweiler Society (President Dietrich Galsterer) has been helping orphanages in Belarus for many years. After they can no longer visit this country for political reasons, the general meeting of the society approved the support of Lviv orphanages in 2021.
Together with German colleagues, three orphanages in Lviv and one orphanage 30 km from Lviv were selected. Then there was the work of finding out and estimating the costs, which were approved on August 25, 2021.
A representative of the company, Mr. Friedrich Haug, was in Lviv from 13 to 17 December 2021 to make purchases for orphanages:
- Training and Rehabilitation Center "Dream", director Galyna Pirch (172 children, including 30 orphans);
- Lviv Special School №100, director Iryna Kostytska (75 children, blind and some with severe developmental disabilities);
- Lviv Secondary Sanatorium School № 1 named after Bogdan-Igor Antonych, director Orest Ivaskiv (197 children with cardiovascular diseases, including orphans and low-income families);
- Velykolyubynsky Training and Rehabilitation Center, director Stepan Mashchak (40 children with special educational needs and severe developmental disabilities, including 15 orphans).
Thanks to good relations with German colleagues, we were able to help children in need. We would like to express my sincere gratitude to the leader Dietrich Galsterer for his persistent, sincere and dedicated work; Mr. Friedrich Haug for his active support and visit to Lviv during the high rates of coronavirus disease and the Pfalzgrafenweiler Society, whose donations have been helping children affected by the consequences of this large-scale man-made environmental and humanitarian catastrophe for decades.