The second “Window of Life” opens in Ukraine

After a few incidents where mothers abandoned their newborns, leaving them in the trash, a decision was made to open another “Window of Life” in Lviv in the Hospital of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyj. It is a special place where a woman can anonymously leave a newborn, for whatever her reason. All day a window at the house at 4 Ozarkevicha Street (near the Cathedral of Saint George) is open to allow a mother to anonymously leave her newborn. Right after an infant is left in the window doctors receive a special signal and descend down to retrieve the baby. According to Ukrainian legislation, for two months the abandoned child cannot be adopted, thus, the parents and relatives have a chance to think over the decision and return the child. The director of the Sheptytskyj Hospital Dzvenyslava Chaykivs’ka noted that to save the life of a newborn child is everyone’s holy duty, and accordingly, the hospital gladly supports this project. This social project was modelled on similar projects of other European countries. Such “Windows of Life” successfully work in Poland and the Czech Republic. This is the second such project in Lviv. The first “Window of Life” at the maternity hospital on George Washington Street was opened in May. Only one child was left at the window during this time but the healthy boy has already been adopted. Currently there is no child in the point but instead newborns have been found on the streets. Specialists attribute this to the fact that new mothers either do not know about the “Window of Life” or are afraid. With the support of the regional administration of health, the Church, civil organizations, and doctors, the initiators of the project will spread information about the “Window of Life” among the youth, students, and villagers. Informative booklets will be available in educational institutions, dormitories, boarding schools, and in all woman consultation offices of the region. “I am very pleased that the second ‘Window of Life’ in Ukraine was opened in the Sheptytskyj Hospital. God ordered this to happen; the metropolitan always dreamed that this institution would help those in the most need. And who else if not a newly born defenceless baby who needs the support from our hospital,” reported Dzvenyslava Chaykivs’ka at the press conference.  “We all don’t live in vain in this world if can jointly to do such things,” the initiator of the project Petro Pysarchuk noted. “The fact that the ‘Window of Life’ is located in the Sheptytskyj Hospital is very symbolically. For me extraordinarily impressive is his life path, his utterances: ‘Not with the stream of noisy phrases, but with quiet tireless work loves Ukraine.’ There is still a lot of fuss and few concrete acts which show our love to Ukraine. Today Mrs. Chaykivs’ka has showed me two houses near the hospital. During his time Metropolitan Sheptytskyj purchased the buildings and founded the first hospital for Ukrainians. Today they are neglected. Meanwhile there are people who would like to take it and to build something new. Thus, together we decided to restore these houses and open a museum to the memory of a great man, who felt pain in his soul for every Ukrainian. During his life Metropolitan Sheptytskyj did many a great deeds and today is an example for us all.”

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