When children are hospitalized, they spend their days wearing pajamas, which provide comfort and a sense of home. That is why every year we organize Pajama Day, a nationwide charity campaign to support ill children and remind them that they are not alone.
All funds raised during the Pajama Day campaign will support the construction of the Ronald McDonald House. Together with you, we will create a House with 50 private rooms for families of seriously ill children to stay free of charge on the grounds of Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital. We call this program a “home away from home” because it provides families with all the comforts of home, along with the compassion and support of the foundation’s team, volunteers, and other families. In the House, families with ill children can stay in comfortable bedrooms for as long as needed for the child’s recovery, and use a modern kitchen, living room, playroom, and library. Families will be able to meet all their basic needs so they can focus on what matters most—their child’s recovery.
Located just steps away from the hospital, the Ronald McDonald House will be especially important for families who travel from other cities and rural communities and cannot afford temporary accommodation in Kyiv during their child’s treatment.
Nearly 400 Ronald McDonald House programs have been built and are supported by generous donors around the world, including more than 100 across Europe. Similar Houses already serve families in neighboring countries, including 12 in the Netherlands, 10 in France, and 3 in Poland. The Ronald McDonald House in Ukraine will be the country’s very first.
We launched Pajama Day for the first time in 2019. We brought people together around a shared goal—to give children in hospitals the opportunity to be close to their families. The campaign received a great response, and Pajama Day became an annual tradition. Today, it is the foundation’s most popular campaign, uniting hundreds of thousands of caring Ukrainians, bloggers, celebrities, businesses, students, and media partners to help ill children.
