My name is Irina Proskuryakova. My son was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of four. He died when he was 16 years old. I felt a strong desire to share my pain, my experiences and lessons I learned. 

That strong desire resulted in the founding of a parent organisation in 1992 in the city of Novosibirsk. I became a chairwoman of that organisation and of a guardian counsel as well. The aim was to help families with children who have leukaemia.

In 1996 I had an idea to establish a centre where ill children could have professional medical and psychological help. I was permitted to take an old building and do the reconstruction. Everything was done with the help of our city administration, sponsors and volunteers. The opening of the centre took place on December 14th, 1999. At present I am the director of the Foundation and in December 2000 we celebrated our first anniversary. We called our centre "Nadezhda" which means "Hope".

Nowadays the Novosibirsk City Foundation To Help Children With Oncohematologic Diseases "Nadezhda" is the only public charitable centre of such kind in Russia. It exists thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and some public funds.

Our centre helps those families with cancer sick children who live in Novosibirsk its region as well. Leading specialists of the city examine our children. Moreover separate programs are developed for each child taking into consideration its physical, psychological and intellectual abilities. The children have different school subjects such as Russian, Literature, Maths, Geography, English, Chemistry, etc. In their spare time they play games, sing songs, dance and make excursions around the city. They get four meals a day.

The centre helps not only the children. Their parents can consult a lawyer, a psychologists, our doctors and nurses, etc. And all this is done absolutely free of costs.
We have many plans but the administrative help is very minimal and we are in need of financial support. Nevertheless "Nadezhda" Foundation works and will work, I hope. 

Nowadays our children have the dream to attend an international camp and meet children from other countries.

We will do our best to make their dreams become true.

Irina Proskuryakova
Novosibirsk