A Promising Trail in Zubří

ČSH

One of the important roles of the Czech Hemophilia Society is undoubtedly the active involvement of young people with hemophilia in its activities. Children have their camps, adults have rehabilitation retreats. But what about those in between? As some children approach adulthood, camps become uninteresting to them — they have different priorities. And hoping that we will meet them again in a few years at the adult retreat? A naive idea. There is therefore a gap that we want to bridge together and give an opportunity to individuals who may be our hope for the future. Not only in organising retreats, but perhaps also in leading the society, which is an indispensable part of our hemophilia community.

A small spark of hope is beginning to dawn right now. A group of young people who had been forming over many years at the hemophilia camp arrived at the intergenerational meeting. A group that gets along well and is interested in continuing to be involved in the society's activities. Time will tell, of course, but the society does not want to give up on these young hopefuls. Already in the autumn in Prague, some of them were involved in a joint workshop, where the idea was born to spend a few days together in the place from which they bring back their best memories. Most of them fondly remember Ondrášův dvůr, now RS Zubří in the Vysočina region, where together with others they experience adventurous summers at the hemophilia camp. One word led to another, and almost every single one of them proposed the date — for us it was then a joy to bring everything to a successful conclusion. During this meeting, we discussed the involvement of young people in the society, reminisced about previous camp years, and addressed the question of what topics the young people would like to focus on and what the society can do for them. In other words, a meaningful use of time that could serve as a springboard and motivation for further joint meetings and projects for adolescent hemophilia patients, their siblings, and friends.

But by all means, read the participants' own impressions:

After a successful camp and the intergenerational hemophilia meeting in October, our dear leaders prepared another event for us — ZZ (Winter Zubří) 2018. It started with the organisationally challenging transfer to the camp grounds. But everything worked out and we were already sitting at dinner in full number — 14 people. The four days we spent here were in a sporty spirit. Demanding and long cross-country skiing trips (about 7 km), swimming feats (wellness), battles in the laser tag arena combined with the mental challenge of an escape room. After returning to the cabins, a cultural programme awaited us in the form of board games, philosophical debates, films, photos, and singing performances, accompanied by three ukuleles and two guitars. The meeting brought us much closer together, even though it was quite cold everywhere. But it was not just due to the low temperature. Every time we see each other, we strengthen our group, and most of us would like to get involved in organising future camps, because the leaders who prepare these events for us are our role models. We admire them incredibly and would like to follow in their footsteps. We owe our group mainly to Janička Kalábová and Martin Bohůn, who have been dedicated to us since we were little, even though they do not have time to spare. We would not want to miss these meetings, and so we hope to see each other again soon, and we believe that others who could not make it this time will also join.

Marika, Ema, Verča, Eva, Patrik, David, Dan, Kryštof, Matěj, Ondra, and Štěpán

The entire event was made possible thanks to the generous contribution and support of Pfizer. Thank you!