• She is organizing a campaign to buy Bulgaria’s first LOKOMAT

Christmas is a time when miracles happen. Dozens of Bulgarians who need rehabilitation are waiting their own miracle. Meanwhile one Bulgarian doctor from Vienna is looking for good hearts in order to make come true the miracle for those, who hope to be able to walk and move again.

For two years Dr Anelia Hochwarter, who is ophthalmologist in Vienna, has been organizing campaign to buy Bulgaria’s first LOKOMAT. This is a robotic device that has been widely used for gait rehabilitation in several neurological disorders. It helps children with Cerebral palsy as well as adults with multiple sclerosis, stroke or brain trauma.

The device costs 280,000 euro, and so far the campaign has raised about 50,000 euro. “This device would revolutionize the rehabilitation in Bulgaria and would give sense to the work of many specialists”, says Dr Hochwarter. She organizes this campaign because she wants to help her home country. Although she has been living far away from Bulgaria for 27 years she feels her roots are here. During all these years she has accomplished many humanitarian missions in Africa let by the same desire to help. Before the start of the current campaign she has helped her home village but she also thinks that “when you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”. However this is not the case with the LOKOMAT campaign, because it needs help and publicity.

Dr Hochwarter says sometimes she feels like “Don Quixote, fighting windmills”. She loves the quote “one gram action is worth more than one tone words”. When she is experiencing hard time people’s kindness and dedication help her to go ahead.

She urges all future donors to believe that she has good intentions. And although Christmas, they say, is the season of miracles, generous and good hearts can create a miracle at any time of the year.