TNMU Student Parliament: “With Faith in Our Victory!”

The Student Parliament of Ternopil National Medical University has always been home for active students, organized many events, and initiated charity projects. During the full-scale war, the future doctors, dentists, pharmacists, physical therapists, nurses continued their work, adjusting to the new conditions and reorienting their attention to the needs of the army and those people who suffered from the Russian military attack.

The Head of the Student Parliament, Alina Holenko, recalls that everyone was overwhelmed with emotions, they wanted to vent and share them, but they tried to do it in a constructive way. “We decided to organize the online project “Everything will Be Ukraine”. The appeal: “Share your own poetry – contribute to the victory!” became its motto. We have many poets among students, so we created an opportunity for them to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine with their creativity. And if earlier few people wrote on patriotic topics, now there are no room for other topics. The contribution for participation in this project was symbolic – 50 hryvnias. We directed the collected funds to the accounts of the volunteer event “Let’s unite, my brothers!”. In fact, it is nice to feel that you are contributing your work to very important things. Although the funds we collected were not so large as well-known volunteers raise, but thanks to the joint efforts of all students of Ukraine, the Kyiv Humanitarian Headquarters managed to purchase the required number of portable radio transmitters for the Armed Forces. We understand that we need many times more such devices, but we are trying to do everything we can,” says Alina emotionally.

TNMU students have extensive social connections and try to be involved in projects of city, all-Ukrainian and international importance. So, they did not hesitate about supporting the campaign, which was designed to provide children who came from other regions with books. The librarians were pleasantly surprised by how young people organized their work. “Together with Ternopil Regional Universal Library and the Youth City Council of Ternopil, we implemented the campaign “Give a child a book – give a child joy.” We did not even expect that we could collect five hundred books. Believe me, this is quite a large number. And it is so joyful that all the books were new, modern and interesting. It is so nice to pick up a good publication, flip through it, look at the illustrations and read. We not only collected books; we also organized the celebration of International Children’s Day during which they presented the collected books to the children. So many emotions were experienced during all these events that they will remain in memory for a long time. The children wrote letters to the soldiers. It’s so cute and so touching. If I were a soldier at the front, children’s sincere wishes would inspire me greatly,” the girl says with a thrill in her voice.

This is not the only touching moment in the activity of the Student Parliament of Ternopil Medical University at this time. Its representatives received heart-breaking stories of their peers who were forced to experience terrible events because of the war. And this became an impulse to make a new event. “Every story must be heard!” – this became the slogan of the “Chronicles of War” campaign. The Student Parliament together with the volunteer project “Life will defeat death, and light will defeat darkness” was aimed at collecting funds for the purchase of drones for the Armed Forces. Students submitted and posted photos taken between February 24, 2022 and the present. Everyone shared their own emotions, lived experiences, excitement, fighting spirit and unity with the help of their own creativity! “On the one hand, it was difficult to read all these stories and view the photos. But everyone has a choice – to cry, to despair or to become stronger and fight for their right to be free and happy. We are proud that we managed to raise funds and purchase drones. And what inspires us even more is that this technique is used by our defenders. It is so important to realize that you can contribute to the approach of our victory,” Alina Holenko says.

The war did not prevent the students from successfully passing their exams. Young people continued to be useful in various ways even during the vacations. For example, they helped in raising children in a patriotic way: together with other Ternopil organizations, they gave a course of lectures on the history of Ukraine.

Realizing that our army needs a lot of the modern gadgets and devices, we continue to raise funds for the purchase of drones. On July 8, we organized the “Friday Evening” event in the student cafe. There were several goals here – to give students an opportunity to take a break from the news and be emotionally filled with positivity by watching interesting films, listening to patriotic songs from one of Ternopil’s musical groups, and playing board games. We collected the first amount for our goal – the purchase of a drone. Now we are planning other events. We will definitely buy a drone! And we also want Ukraine to win,” Alina Holenko concludes her story.

Sofiia Berehuliak, Student of I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, Member of TNMU Student Parliament