Unconventional History Class For Sick Children

On the initiative of HM HIM and SOTE, the opening program of a new series of events was held last week. Many horses and hussars turned up at the event and there were children wearing headscarves watching the preparation of the soldiers with curiosity right from the start. First the horses were taken out of the trailers and they were harnessed, meanwhile the ’three pound’ cannon was arrayed. As soon as the morning rounds finished in the wards more and more children came down to the car park. They were stroking the horses and also fed them the plants the hussars brought for the animals. On this day there were apples, carrots, and fresh hay on the menu of the horses, and the children were busy carrying the ’dishes’ and laying them down in front of the animals.

After ten o’clock the hussars were ready and the horses were waiting for the program to begin with nice elaborate saddles on their backs. Dr. András Szabó, the director of the Children’s Clinic greeted the audience, although the children were focusing on the horses in the first place. The director emphasized in this welcome speech that it is a new initiative, a rehabilitation program supported by the HM HIM, on the basis of a cooperation agreement concluded recently. At the clinic various chronic, paediatric rheumatology and paediatric oncology diseases are treated. These little patients often have to spend several months at the clinic until full recovery. The purpose of the series of programs is breaking the children away from the monotonous and a bit strict daily life of the hospital. Such first-hand experiences can be a great help in the healing process and the rehabilitation of the children. Játszóház Alapítvány, a foundation that works at the clinic and one of the leaders and founders of which is Dr. Miklós Garami, gives this program tremendous help. The Children’s Clinic is an institution with a history of 125 years, operating as the paediatrics centre of the region. It has 13 in-patient wards and 21 specialist surgeries, and the hospital provides medical care for more than 9,000 in-patients and nearly 80,000 outpatients a year. The oncology and haematology wards operate as the centre of the national network for the treatment of children with cancer and leukaemia, where some 50 per cent of the children with paediatric oncology diseases in the country are treated.

Meanwhile the children were already sitting on the horses, who were very tolerant and patient under the fidgeting kids on their backs. The leaders of the hussars and the deputy chariman of the Hungarian Hussar and Military Heritage Alliance, György Udovecz helped with the organization of the demonstration. He said they gladly came to visit the children and if they can help their recovery only a little bit, it was already worth it. He told the children many times about the tricks of operating a cannon and also demonstrated the work of artillerymen from loading to cleaning the barrel. He emphasized that with this demonstration they can show the children only a small segment of the 1848-49 revolution and fight for freedom. They would like to continue this event by taking groups of children who can leave the hospital up to the Museum of Military History where the all the events of the period can be recalled.

Dr. Miklós Garami underlined that they want to facilitate the recovery of the children with these programs. “It is very difficult to tolerate mentally the strict rules of the medical treatments that last several months, therefore we would like to ease this tension with this program. When the children have a chance to get so close to things which are so distant from them otherwise, and the fact that they can hold the weapons in their hands, stroke the horses, talk to the hussars, can ease a lot of spasms in them which have been accumulated during the long treatment." Therapeutic riding has proven to help recovery, on the one hand because of the experience, and on the other hand because when one is riding a horse muscles are put into action which are otherwise rarely used. The movements of riding work the muscles of the back thoroughly; it is more efficient than a massage and this can help the recovery of children with tumor.

The organizers also told us that the morning program continues in the great hall of the hospital, where they await the children with various games and handicraft activities. They can make shakoes , there will be colouring books – with pictures of hussars riding their horses, of course –, a colour-mixing game and a labyrinth where the hussar has to find the battlefield. The activity will be followed by more days like this, for they would like to deal with the other great events of the Hungarian nation, such as the conquest, the Hunyadis, and even the two world wars.