28 • 06 • 2015
Happy birthday to Strazdumuiza playground
Thanks to "Latvia's State Forests" (LVM) support for social projects, children of the Strazdumuiza village will now have a new playground, which is designed specifically for visually-impaired and blind children. The authors of the project – the Latvian Society of the Blind organization Strazdumuiza in Riga City's Vidzeme Suburb – are proud of their work, seeing so many happy children in one place.
"I will stay here forever," says Lelde, while climbing the playground's stairs that are marked with bright-yellow indicators on the edges. Reaching the top of the tower, she waves to the world with her little hand. There was no such tower here before; there were no colors or playground. The place used to have a rusty rocket that stood there like a Soviet-era decoration, the slide was formerly a slope covered with a metal sheet, whereas the sandbox used to be occupied by cats.
Now, following nine months of planning and assembling, children are taking their first steps into the restored playground. The playground flooring uses a special surface with the aim to reduce the impact of falling, as well as to mark the playground's borders for children. It is important to equip such playgrounds with contrasting details and edges. The playground also serves an educational function, as, for instance, the sandbox has only one entrance/exit. This ensures safety for the children, enabling them to orientate themselves effortlessly – entering and leaving the area through the same way.
The society's representatives agree – the village's residents have many needs, and it is difficult to decide which ones are more important. "Children are our future," is one idea that is reiterated in most ceremonial speeches. Chairwoman of the Latvian Society of the Blind, Svetlana Sproge, says: "We did not know that the Strazdumuiza village has so many children! Look around! At the time when the playground was only an idea, we noticed that a number of children could not play and enjoy playgrounds in other apartment houses' courtyards, as they were not suited for visually-impaired and blind children. This is why we wish a happy birthday to the "new world of children" in Strazdumuiza!"
JSC "Latvian State Forests" donated EUR 300,000 from last year's profit to social projects, providing assistance to almost 60,000 people in all of Latvia. The funding was provided to 28 projects with the aim to help children and adults with special needs. In order to make LVM's donation transparent, and for it to reach as many residents as possible, the owner of LVM – the Agriculture Ministry – signed a social cooperation memorandum with the foundation "Ziedot.lv", "Latvijas Bērnu Fonds" (Latvian Children's Fund), and the society "Latvijas Samariesu Apvieniba" (The Samaritan Association of Latvia), which organize procurement tenders and supervise the spending of the donation. LVM also provides support for social projects of the said organizations.
