Dear Mr. Ambassador of Ukraine!
Dear Board and Staff of the Vaivari Rehabilitation Centre!
Warm greetings to Mrs. Rūta Dimanta, the head of ziedot.lv!
Heroic Ukrainian soldiers and medics!
Dear attendees!
It is a great honour for me to visit you today at the Vaivari Rehabilitation Centre.
The Vaivari rehabilitation center is a place where many have been helped to return to everyday life in a professional, high-quality manner after surgeries, injuries, and congenital health disorders.
Until now, most of the help has been received by the citizens of our country.
But since this summer, in a short period of time, you, dear staff of Vaivari Rehabilitation Centre, have created a peaceful island where Ukrainian civilians and heroic soldiers can heal both their physical and spiritual wounds. The wounds inflicted by Russia on the Ukrainian people.
Ukrainian soldiers and civilians receive medical assistance here, and since this past summer there has been additional emphasis on professional cooperation with Ukrainian medical experts.
Recently, the Adolescent Resource Center in Latvia has established a similar cooperation with Gen.Ukrainian, an organisation dedicated to the mental health of teenagers and whose patron is the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska.
The exchange of professional knowledge and experience is always a win-win situation.
Without a doubt, in the history of this war, the name of Vaivari will be remembered fondly in stark contrast to Buča, Irpina, Mariupole and other notorious places.
***
My generation grew up with fathers and mothers who had lived through the World War II. Of those who returned alive from the war, many came back without legs, arms or eyes. These were visible injuries to all. A perpetual reminder of a tragic past.
However, at that time, during the post-war years, there was an absence of awareness of possible mental health trauma or the subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Men were ordered to take off their war uniforms, wipe off the war dust and return to work to deal with the aftermath of war.
Similarly, women were expected to forget, or at least not talk about, war atrocities, such as rape, in order to take care of their families.
Most did, and in the following years just functioned, but never lived full, happy lives again.
Suicides, nervous breakdowns, nightmares and various addictions were common consequences of this particular method of coping with the war trauma.
Today, medical professionals have acknowledged the impact of emotional, hidden trauma as potentially even more painful that the physical one.
No person should be ashamed to seek help, after experiencing the dangers of war crimes, they are plagued by flashbacks, sleep disturbances, mood swings and other symptoms, thus PTSD.
***
You, the heroes of Ukraine, are defending your homeland with conviction. All Latvians and many, many people around the world truly admire you. Personally, I am glad to see you safe here in Vaivari.
I invite you to work with our well-educated and motivated doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and prosthetists of Vaivari Rehabilitation Centre. Even if physical rehabilitation can sometimes require hard effort with painfully slow success.
I invite you to visit psychologists or psychiatrists to learn how to regain calm in moments of need and find ways to cope with the horrid images of the war in your memory.
***
However, not only in Vaivari, but also on the ground in Ukraine, Latvian volunteers are trying to help Ukrainians.
When I was in Kiev this summer to participate in the summit organised by Olena Zelenska, I met one of them, microsurgeon Olafs Liebermanis who spends extensive hours in the operating room at the military hospital.
O. Libermanis fights for every person to prevent amputations so that they can continue their daily life after the war without physical limitations.
Much of this help would not be possible without Rūta Dimanta. She tirelessly reminds us about the portal ziedot.lv, where our people can donate to Ukraine.
Without a doubt this war will come to an end one day, as with all senseless wars in human history.
Then Ukraine will need strong and healthy men and women to:
- rebuild Ukraine's infrastructure, destroyed by Russian troops;
- testify about Russian war crimes before an international tribunal, like the Nuremberg Tribunal, which was held from 1945 to 1949 and tried the main war criminals of Nazi Germany;
- raise a spiritually strong, but above all happy generation of young Ukrainians.
Thank you to all the professional helpers here at the Vaivari Rehabilitation Centre!
Thank you Rūta Dimanta!
Glory to Ukraine!
