The "Cradles of Hope" is a program of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation within the domain of healthcare. The program's aim is to reduce the level of infant mortality in Ukraine. The global and serious nature of the issue clearly demands that a solution is sought not by the state authorities solely but through a close participation of non-governmental and charitable organizations. The state of medical equipment, the conditions of facilities and the qualifications of staff often does not allow for the provision of high quality aid to new born babies.

With the support of the Foundation, Cradles of Hope has begun developing a network of state-of-the-art newborn care centres throughout Ukraine. We believe that the ready availability of equipment and skilled personnel will help reduce infant mortality and, thereby, promote the improvement of the demographic situation in Ukraine.In order to attain these objectives, the Programme provides for the following.

Equipping of the institutions to maintain the foetus development, child's birth and bring-up:

• timed and quality diagnosis of the problem cases
• transportation
• emergency aid during the assisted delivery
• resuscitation
• subsequent rehabilitation

Equipment bought to that end is the most up-to-date and the best can buy.

Conducting training sessions and seminars to train the personnel in new nursing technologies.

Supply of computer work-stations to enable communication between Centres as well as fast access to the Internet and innovations in the theory and practice of the neonatalogy.

Further monitoring of the Centres' work to evaluate their efficiency.

Starting from 2006 in Chernihiv, the Cradles of Hope Program has set up the most up-to-date network of eighteen Neonatal Centres in different regions of Ukraine. The cutting edge medical equipment was acquired for the "Cradles of Hope" Centres in Chernihiv, Volodymyrets, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv (Amosov National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery and National Children’s Hospital “Okhmadyt” ), Ovruch, Chernivtsi, Bakhchisarai, Izmail, Odessa, Simferopil', Donetsk, Khmel'nytsk'yi, Zhytomyr, Cherkassy and Mykolaiv. The Program will keep on cooperating with the opened Centres.