Latvian Coeliac Society arranges summer camp for both Latvian and Ukrainian coeliac children
The Latvian Coeliac Society, Dzīve bez glutēna (Life without gluten), has been organizing summer camps for Latvian coeliac children for nine years. This year was a little bit different since also Ukrainian coeliac children were invited to participate. With the financial help from AOECS families from the cities Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv, Kaneva, Vinnica, and Uman were able to come and spend some calm days in the Latvian countryside.
Since most Latvian people also speak Russian it is easy for Ukrainians to understand and communicate even though Latvian and Ukrainian are not the same languages. At the children's gluten-free summer camp which was held between 24-30 July both summer adventures, as well as a safe gluten-free menu, were provided to the participants.
Thanks to the financial support of the Association of European Celiac Societies (AOECS) along with the initiative and effort of Anna Vilsone, the chairman of the board of the Life without gluten Society, this year also Ukrainian families could visit the traditional summer camp.
At the camp in Kocēnu, children and young people spent a lot of time outdoors participating in various sports activities, playing board games, visiting Valmiera's sensory park and handcrafting various souvenirs in the creative workshops.
” Thank you for our holiday without sirens and rockets, the opportunity to see an amazingly beautiful country. Both children and mothers brought a lot of impressions… the opportunity to be 'in peace and tranquility' again, to wake up from the cries of seagulls, to see the sea again.” quoted from one of the Ukrainian mothers participating in the summer camp.
The camp was also made possible by the support from companies donating food. This year Nestlé, Schär and cakes and muffins from Liepkalni maiznīca made it possible to cater for the participants as well as to celebrate some children's birthdays at the summer camp.
AOECS Emergency Fund