How flour with folic acid can save children's lives

Friends, you already know how much we at the CO "Mother and Child" care about the fate of newborn babies with a diagnosis of Spina Bifida. This is one of the priority areas of our organization's work.

This year alone, together with you, we have paid for more than 300 urgent surgeries for children in need. More than half of these were for Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus diagnoses.

Recently, I had the honor of participating in a roundtable in the Committees of the Parliament of Ukraine. The discussion focused on Draft Law No. 5657 on flour fortification. This project is a particular initiative of the Ukrainian Association of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, where I serve as honorary chair.

The project's goal is to reduce the number of congenital malformations of the central nervous system (including Spina Bifida) by adding folic acid to flour (fortification).

This method has been successfully used for many years in the USA, Canada, and 84 other progressive countries. And together with my team of like-minded people – Misha Lovha, Oksana Boyarchuk, Olya Tychkivska, Maksym Ponomarenko, Mariana Koshmaniuk Neruchok, Oleg Masnyy – we advocated for the implementation of this vital project in Ukraine as soon as possible.

Personally, in the context of the meeting, I spoke to the audience about the specifics of supporting infants with Spina Bifida and their parents from the first days of their birth. After all, it is this support that determines not only the child's health but often whether parents, shocked by the diagnosis, will abandon them.

The audience had the opportunity to be convinced of the importance of this aspect of the problem through real-life rescue stories of children from the experience of the CO "Mother and Child".

During the discussion, a lively debate took place with agrarians and representatives of institutions who presented their positions on this project. I hope our team succeeded in proving why it is so important to take appropriate measures at the state level in a timely manner.

What is encouraging is that despite sometimes opposing views on the topic with some participants, we reached a basic agreement at the end of the meeting: a chance for a bright and healthy future for a child is the most important thing! It was heated, but it was interesting and useful. After all, great changes usually begin with discussions and at least small but real steps toward achieving a common goal!

I sincerely thank everyone who was not indifferent and joined the discussion of the problem and the search for solutions. Let's continue to help ensure that more and more healthy infants are born in Ukraine every year!

Sincerely, Alla Melnychuk,
Head of the CO "Mother and Child".