MINSK, 2 September (BelTA) – The elderly care home in Minsk received greetings and gifts from Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on 1 September, BelTA has learned.
Traditionally, Nikolai Lukashenko, representatives of the Belarus Ice Hockey Federation headed by its chairman, journalists, people working with the president came to visit the elderly care home and brought gifts and treats. Such meetings have already become a good tradition, which has been running for six years already.
This time the guests brought 2.5 tonnes of watermelons and other fruit and vegetables from the president's garden, honey and jam from the town of Alexandria, all in all 570 jars). The delegation also donated medical equipment, medicines, personal protective equipment and also ten benches to landscape the grounds of the care home.
As Nikolai Lukashenko noted, they could not visit earlier because of the situation with the coronavirus. “But this year we came with a double portion of emotions and gifts, including medical equipment,” he noted.
The director of the care home, Natalia Zychkova, thanked everyone. "I don't call it a care home. It's just a house where people live, just like ours or yours. Therefore, everything that is created here is created for them. We are always happy to welcome guests,” she said.
She urged not to worry too much about various challenges facing both Belarus and the world as a whole. The main thing is to believe the best and look at life positively, enjoy every moment of it and smile more often.
The guests and residents of the elderly care home discussed various topics and shared their life stories over tea with home-made cakes and pies. For example, one of the residents of the care house is a 86 years old ophthalmologist who survived a Nazi concentration camp as a child and who lived three years in occupation. After the war he worked for many years as a doctor, a demanding yet very interesting and useful job. The doctor conducted some 5,000 eye surgeries, including on newborns and prematurely born children.
Some 362 people live in the care home today. The care home staff worked really well to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak when the pandemic began. All the workers have already been vaccinated.
Press Secretary of the Belarusian President Natalya Eismont thanked the care home administration for taking care of people during the difficult period. She emphasized that good attitude and joy of communication is mutual. She added that the gifts brought to the care home are organic.
Sports and ice hockey in particular were among the topics discussed during the visit. Representatives of the Belarusian Ice Hockey Federation invited the care home residents and workers to Minsk Arena to cheer on HC Dinamo Minsk in the upcoming season.
The guests and residents of the care home also exchanged opinions on the quality of work of the central TV channels.
The guests were also shown around a small farm of the care home. A joint photo session, another good tradition wrapped up the visit.
