Up to 500 children are abandoned or taken from their mothers for various reasons directly in the hospital each year. To ensure they do not wonder about how they came into the world, what they looked like, and whether anyone loved them, we preserve memories of the beginning of their lives in suitcases, helping them during their search for identity.
In Life in a Suitcase, we have doctors and nurses from 61 maternity hospitals across the country, foster and adoptive families, willing volunteers, and generous sponsors working with us.
Not every child grows up in their biological family. Up to 500 children leave the maternity ward each year without their biological mother and take only a discharge report to foster families, adoptive parents, or baby homes. However, this report does not tell them how they came into the world, what they looked like, or who held them in their arms instead of their mother.
To help these children, chief nurse Michaela Chmelařová from FNKV came up with the idea of collecting first memories, and Martina Opava with Iva Říhová from the La Vida Loca Foundation are realizing her vision through Life in a Suitcase. Since 2015, they have gradually involved maternity hospitals from all over the Czech Republic, and together with healthcare professionals, they fill the suitcases with birth bracelets, photographs, the first pacifier, clothing, or a toy crocheted by one of the volunteers, along with many personal items and messages.
Few can imagine how difficult it is for children to come to terms with the fact that their mother abandoned them after giving birth during their adolescence. They feel unwanted, know nothing about the beginning of their lives, cannot compare their appearance with their own children, and experience a lack of familial belonging. Life in a Suitcase lets them know that these children were also loved, tenderly cared for by nurses, attended to by doctors, and that grandmothers in nursing homes handmade toys for them and thought of them.
This project is unparalleled in the world; it continuously grows and improves the contents of the suitcases and its programs. Healthcare professionals, child psychologists, foster parents, and adoptive families are actively involved, all helping to preserve these valuable memories.
Life in a Suitcase symbolizes bonds, relationships, communication, life stories, and anchors that are so important for self-acceptance and the identity of each of us. The project is primarily aimed at the most vulnerable—newborns abandoned by their biological parents. However, the project does not end there; rather, it begins… It supports children’s search for self-identity, parental bonding with their child, and the important role of grandparents, who have the gift of sharing and remembering.
Our company, Vermione, has recently joined in collaboration with the foundation. Since we do not have a product range specifically intended for the contents of the suitcases, we have decided to participate in the project through financial assistance. From each order placed in our e-shop, I will donate 10 CZK to support the Life in a Suitcase foundation. As part of this support, it is also possible to purchase a financial voucher, thereby contributing a higher amount to the foundation, which will be transferred in full. Thank you sincerely for any support.
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