2020 has been very challenging for most of us – a year full of turbulence, often accompanied by feelings of helplessness and frustration. Sounds familiar? Our clowns, mentors and teachers repeatedly faced closings of hospitals and children’s homes, where they´d normally go to cheer children up, teach them, or lend a helping hand and a extend a listening ear.
However, each coin has two sides! While we struggled with lockdown conditions in orphanages and hospitals, our Robin Hood program had a marked resurgence and an enormous uptick in activities.
To start with, right during the spring lockdown, we received an offer from CPI Hotels, a longtime partner and supporter of C4C: “We have food and eggs to give away!” Yay! Our team jumped at the opportunity and during the following week we delivered food and eggs from Prague hotels to children’s homes and nursing homes.
“That was a real Godsend at the time, as institutions with resident children especially, were struggling with their budgets and supplying enough food, since children were locked in to the premises all day. In normal times they would have eaten out in school for lunch,” remarks C4C´s co-founder Rafal Wojas.
Next, S.C. Johnson donated cleaning products to children´s homes at the beginning of the pandemic, and later, during the fall, also scented candles, which made kids, aunts and uncles very happy, especially with regard to the approaching Christmas season.
We also teamed up with Danone Company, which donated thousands of Activia Yoghurts which were delivered to 12 homes for children and the elderly.
In addition to food aid, distribution of material aid has also continued in full force. Thanks to our successful cooperation with the Swedish HH Foundation and logistic giant DHL, we regularly deliver brand-new fashion apparel and accessories to children’s homes.
Last, but not least, there is the Vanity Fair company. Home to some of the world’s best known clothing and apparel brands, like Timberland, The North Face, Jansport and Vans, VF has become one of Robin Hood´s major partners and during 2020 our team distributed several thousand items of new, clothes and fashion accessories to children, as well as the hugely popular VANS brand shoes.
“Orphans are easily recognized at school by wearing mostly hand-me-downs. New fashionable apparel, like the one C4C supplies through its partner network, help tremendously to boost self-esteem of children residing in institutions,” says Petra Erguvanli, who manages C4C´s Springboard to Life initiative. “Sadly, they are often judged as odd or weird by some of their more fashion conscious and ‘cool’ peers.”
A huge thank you also goes to two of our amazing supporters, without whose help Robin Hood could not function at all: firstly, DHL, which has been transporting international aid shipments to our storage premises for years, and then ESA logistika Kladno, a company that not only provided us with a new storage facility this year, but also helped us with moving out of the old one. In addition, as you can see here, those people really have a sense of humor! 😉
When it comes to Robin Hood, here´s some folks who deserve a special mention as well: four cheers for our whole-hearted team members, Jana Šnoblová, Pavel Justych, František Konvalinka and Zuzka Blechová, who devotedly helped with the delivery of some of the above mentioned donations! Thank you so much!
And what was the response of the recipients the aid? Read some of it for yourself:
“Hello, I greet you very much from Domino. On behalf of all of us, I wanted to thank you for the nice clothes and shoes that we received through you and the Chance 4 Children organization. The children chose the things they liked according to their choice. I’m sending you a few photos that I got from the groups. Thank you very much again. Have a nice time and we will be happy for further cooperation. ” Mgr. Naďa Erbová, director of DD Domino Plzeň
“We would like to thank the humanitarian organization C4C and Pavel Justych, who in this difficult time think of our senior fellow citizens and give our users ‘health promotion’ in the form of Activia yogurts from the Danone company.” Domov Březnice
“Hello, C4C, thank you very much for a sponsorship gift in the form of medical and girls’ shoes. They made the children very happy. Thank you very much for the support of our children.” Marta Camfrlová, Children’s Home Valašské Meziříčí
“Hello, last week we received a gift that made us and especially the children very, very happy. The children just walking on clouds. Your help is very important to us and we appreciate your support. We’re glad you’re with us. Thank you again for yourself, but especially for the children.“ Mgr. Eva Čapková, director of the Children’s Home and the Vizovice Primary School
“We would like to thank on behalf of all the children from our orphanage for the very nice VANS shoes and clothes. The children took some of their clothes and shoes to schools in September and they will still have some under the Christmas tree.” Mgr. Ilona Hellerová, director of DD Česká Lípa
“Dear Petra, it’s beautiful that you still think of us and pamper us. Thank you very much for everything and we appreciate everything you do for us.” Hanka Kupková, Director of Klokánek Hostivice
How shall we best wrap things up?
In 2020, thanks to the amazing generosity of each link of this glorious chain of human solidarity, we managed to distribute material and food aid in excess of 10,200,000 to children’s homes and the homes of the elderly, and at C4C we are extremely happy to look forward to working with them in 2021 too.
May the coming year be much more peaceful and stress-free for all of us than the last one.
Author: Zuzana Šrámková
