If you are interested in participating in the completely voluntary purchase of gifts for Ukrainian children, please read the instructions below:
There is a presentation on the community call today, and here’s the summary on the Saint Nicholas Reindeers program and ways to participate.
If you’d like to see the letters (as PDFs) written by children and a translation from Ukrainian of the requested gifts, there’s a google document. (as of 29-Nov almost all of the kids have their “Wizard” but there are 300 - 600 new kids to be added)
If you don’t have Paypal, you can use Venmo: @Anna-Ostropolets
When sending the money please add a note “OHDSI Saint Nicolas Reindeers”
If you would prefer to select and purchase a gift directly, please reach out to me, so I assist in navigating the google docs and purchasing site, which is similar to Amazon.
The deadline is December 6th, to give time for the gifts to be distributed in time for Christmas.
In a community call in January we will provide a summary of the funds collected and the items that were purchased.
Thanks everyone who participated!
And thanks Sciforce-Ukraine for helping with logistics and purchasing the gifts!
Here are some photos of kids we bought the presents (parents allowed to publish these photos)
"Thanks a lot to the “Reindeers” for amazing experience, they are incredible wizards. Made a very nice festival. Wishing a peaceful sky and God’s blessings.
And a short summary:
We collected 1,426 USD and we made 18 kids happier.
285 USD sent to the organizers, so they buy gasoline, fruits and other treats for kids etc.,
1141 USD spent on gifts respectively
Dear OHDSI community, I encourage you to participate in the “Saint Nicolas Reindeers" charity this year as well.
The idea is that you can send the gifts for kids displaced due to the war in Ukraine.
Please see the last year reports in posts above.
Although it’s not easy for non-Ukrainian speakers to navigate Ukrainian online stores and organize the delivery, you can send the money to me or Anna,
If you don’t have Paypal, you can use Venmo: @Anna-Ostr
and then we chose kids and send the gifts to the organization.
The beauty of this initiative is that the “Saint Nicolas Reindeers”, the group of Ukrainian volunteers not just deliver presents but organize the whole New Year / Christmas celebration with games and parties for kids.
Of course you can have preferences of what presents and which kids to choose. Then we can work on this together. Here you can see the list of letters to the Saint Nicolas with wishes we will fulfill.
Do not hesitate to contact me, if you have any questions: dymshyts@ohdsi.org or in teams.
The deadline is November 28th , to give time for the gifts to be distributed in time for Christmas.
Friends, I’m so grateful for your participation in this wonder!
This year we collected 1700 USD.
Most of the money were sent directly to the Charity so they can keep up with logistics and organizational costs.
3 kids got gifts directly from us: there were 2 lego sets and big set of colorfull yarn.
The Reindeers made holidays in 38 settlements across Ukraine, including 17 de-occupied villages and settlements of the Kharkiv region, 3 front-line settlements of the Donetsk region and Kherson, where it was very loud all the time (16 holidays + delivery of gifts to homes in certain districts). Eventually they made 56 events. See more details here.
You can scroll their facebook page to see the photos and videos of these celebrations to feel a bit of what happened.
