New and old friends bring in vital support for our projects
Snapshots of our work with our partners from the Ukrainian NGO X-Traverse in the Kharkiv region. Despite the constant threat level, people walk several kilometres to see a doctor and receive basic medicines at least once in a while.
I had the opportunity yesterday to visit the medical school and the new emergency department at St. Panteleimon Hospital as part of a joint project between DAHW Deutsche Lepra- und Tuberkulosehilfe e.V. and the leading Ukrainian rehabilitation foundation Unbroken.
Our partners at Kinikum No. 25 in Kharkiv were visibly delighted with our latest delivery of newly purchased equipment. It included several emergency suction devices that run on batteries and therefore continue to function even during power outages.
Less than a week after launching our fundraising campaign ‘How can we help Ukraine - right now!’, we received our first donations. It's not enough by a far stretch, but it's an encouraging start. This week, we delivered the following to eastern Ukraine:
After almost two hours of exciting virtual training with donor company Hadler&Braun Medizintechnik, two translators and the intensive care team at Hospital No. 25 in Kharkiv, the new blood gas analyzer device is now up and running.
An important part of our ccoperation with medical colleagues in Ukraine is the constant re-evaluation and testing of medical supplies we use. These tests are particularly important when original products are tested against derivatives.
The war in Ukraine has become even more brutal during president Trump's ‘peace negotiations’. The front is moving even closer to already hard-hit Kharkiv city.
In a joint project with our partners from TvoryDobro, who, as Berliners with Ukrainian roots, have been doing admirable work in those past three years, this time we are providing these pneumatic gloves to a rehabilitation centre in Ukraine.
Despite the recent start of talks on a ceasefire in Ukraine, hundreds of people continue to be injured or killed every day as a result of the fighting. The high number of complicated bone fractures places a particular burden on hospitals and rescue services.
During my current visit to Ukraine, I was able see the progress of a cooperation project with my own eyes:
While the military situation just a few kilometres from these colleagues' clinic is becoming increasingly dramatic, they are trying day after day to save as many lives and preserve as much health as they can.
We are receiving photo messages and greetings from people all over Ukraine on a daily basis now, to whom our local partners have been able to deliver winter sleeping bags current campaign stocks.
Urgently needed: surgical instruments for Ukraine!
If I'm posting relatively little at the moment, it's not because there's nothing going on, but because the winter relief campaign has gripped me entirely. Thank you for sticking with me!
After a long break, we are now back with news from our winter aid campaign for the frontline communities in Ukraine.
Winter program aid launched - Solar-powered emergency power stations and winter sleeping bags for Eastern Ukraine … According to current estimates, 50-60% of Ukraine's heating and energy infrastructure is currently out of action following targeted Russian attacks.
Impressions from our trip to Ukraine last week. We are committed to transparency and effectiveness in the use of donations made to us. This implies frequent direct coordination with our local partners: Is the aid getting through? Is the equipment working? How have needs changed?
Pulse oximeters are devices for measuring oxygen saturation in the blood and are an important safety factor in emergencies or during operations.
One of the particularly ugly aspects of the war in Ukraine is that rescue workers are systematically being targeted and killed on a daily basis.
We still occasionally receive donations in kind containing instruments from various surgical specialities. After checking and packing them properly, we send them to the Ukrainian centres where they are most urgently needed:
++++ Uninterruptible power supply in operation ++++ … After a long period of preparation, technicians at St Nicholas Children's Hospital were finally able to put the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) donated by us into operation.
After several months of extensive planning and preparation, two special ventilators for newborns and premature babies have finally been put into operation at St Nicholas Pediatric Hospital in Lviv. They will supplement the urgently needed capacity of the intensive care unit there.
Although the Russian invaders are currently not advancing any further towards the city of Kharkiv, dozens of people are killed and injured every day as a result of the constant bombardment.
Since the end of 2023, we have been planning the installation of an uninterruptible power supply (#UPS) for the CT scanner at St Nicholas Hospital in #Lviv with the support of the #ElseKrönerFresenius Foundation.
We need a bedside measurement facility for haemoglobin and lactate for partners caring for seriously injured patients in eastern Ukraine. The unit serves to rapidly assess severe shock conditions. Targeted action saves lives in these situations.
The first donated Dräger patient monitors were handed over in #Kyiv yesterday. The picture shows the heads of the #emergency medicine clinics of City Hospital No. 12 and Shalimov Hospital at the handover. Other devices were delivered to the Center for Eye Microsurgery.
Sometimes our humanitarian mission is a bit like farming in the old days: it often takes months from the initial idea to the first communication with partners to the actual procurement and final fruition.
As previously reported, the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian power supply grid are continuing. Currently, our colleagues in the rescue service in Kharkiv only have power from the socket for hours at a time, if at all.
Nighttime rescue mission in Kharkiv yesterday. Due to power outage following a Russian strike on the local power plant, everything is dark: no traffic lights, no lights, no internet nor telephone.
The images are the same from all over Ukraine today. Since the conclusion of the Russian presidential elections, the biggest wave of air strikes since the beginning of the war has been rolling in.
One of our longest-running projects continues to be in high demand. We have recently been able to provide and deliver a large consignment of general surgical instruments to the Mykolayiv municipal hospital free of charge.
Our young anesthetists in Ukraine are delighted with the delivery of two fully operational portable ultrasound probes and the corresponding iPads. I have already reported elsewhere on how our colleagues are constantly training themselves and others to use more and more regional anaesthesia.
These scantily clad men in the snow looking so friendly have a serious background. They are colleagues from the #Charkiv ambulance service who are practising how to prevent hypothermia in patients.
While the first signs of spring can already be seen here, it is still bitterly cold in eastern Ukraine. Together with our partners Libereco – Partnership for Human Rights - and X-Traverse #Kharkiv, we have sent a total of 1000 children's sleeping bags to the districts close to the front line there.
We have acquired pool of new surgical instruments from a large donation in kind. We regularly send the inventory to Ukrainian clinics, which can order instruments and tools from it. The appropriate items are then delivered to Ukraine free of charge.
In Russia's first Rocket attacks on the city of Kharkiv in Eastern Ukraine this year, several of our rescue service colleagues were injured by so-called double-tap strikes. This involves firing at a (civilian) target several times in intervals in an attempt to kill or injure rescue workers.
t has taken almost an eternity due to new customs regulations in Ukraine and the truckers' strike at the borders.
We don't send out Christmas cards or chocolates. We don't write annual reviews or bake biscuits. We are doing the same as usual - we are working on the next aid delivery.
Over the past year, we have delivered several mobile ultrasound devices to our partners in Ukraine. These are mostly used in emergency diagnostics (e.g. in the FAST protocol for the early detection of internal haemorrhages).
In 2022, 4-Ukraine involved in the creation of a Mobile Primary Health Care Unit (mobile medical practice) for the Ukrainian NGO "Basa_UA". This vehicle brings primary medical care to areas in Ukraine where the regular care system has been destroyed by the Russian invasion.
Winter has now arrived in Germany too. What often leads to romantic notions of a white Christmas there quickly becomes life-threatening here in Eastern Ukraine. Thousands of houses are still without rooves, windows, heating or electricity.
After handing over the last (for me personally) seriously injured patient in Dnipro and a brief scare due to the air raid on Pavlograd, there was time for a little lightness and a friendly farewell.
Today, we were surprised by a snowstorm on the way back after transporting a seriously injured patient in eastern Ukraine with our local colleagues. The transport routes are often several hundred kilometres, which can be challenging in fair weather.
Some time ago, the National Cancer Institute of Ukraine in Kyiv approached us and asked for surgical instruments. We were able to provide some of these from our "Instruments for the operating room" campaign. This part of the long list of requirements could now be delivered to the local institution.
The targeted procurement of materials for the care of seriously ill and injured patients in Ukraine is complex. It requires some expertise, language skills and, above all, persistence. The first step is to clarify what exactly is needed.
Following an extensive reloading and onward transport operation, all 50 emergency power generators have now been delivered to the 39 end users in Ukraine.
In spring of this year, there was a veritable run on mobile power generators following the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian power grid. Those available were generally cheaply produced, expensively sold and noisy.
We have had an intensive cooperation with the St. Nicholas Children's Hospital in Lviv since our first mission to Ukraine.
Today, the HMM NURI finally arrives in the port of Hamburg with our 20-ft container full of emergency generators! This is exciting!
Newspaper report in the "Voice of Ukraine" about the delivery of surgical instruments … The Rokytne Multidisciplinary Intensive Care Hospital in the village of Rokytne, (...) , Sarny district, has received aid from Germany.
A completely destroyed hospital ward in Oleksandriwka could be put back into operation on 26 September 2023 with the help of the Saving an Angel Foundation, among others.
A large part of the adult sleeping bags (see post of 12.10.23) have now arrived in Ukraine: Our local partners will continue to distribute them.
After a long voyage through the Pacific, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the HMM NURI has now reached the Mediterranean with our container on board! The ship is expected to arrive in Hamburg harbour on 28th of October. We are excited and hope to be able to present pictures of the arrival then.
It is often the uncomplicated cooperation for the common goal that makes humanitarian work in the Ukraine aid community so rewarding. When I met Dr Ole Hensel from the University of Halle and his association Leuchtturm Helfer e. V. 2022 online, I had no idea what this acquaintance would lead to.
On 12.10.2023 the a lot of sleeping bags of our new project 1000 sleeping bags more! arrived in Berlin. 900 high quality winter sleeping bags could be ordered with the help of the sponsorship of "Gewerkschaften helfen e.V." and will now be transported to Ukraine.
Here you can see the progress of "our" container full of emergency power generators on board the HMM NURI on its way from Fuzhou to the port of Hamburg. There they will be reloaded and then transported by truck directly to Ukraine.
After further problems with the sea freight companies (one suddenly no longer accepts equipment with starter batteries in it... The others do not transport relief supplies for Ukraine - even if they are delivered to Germany) - we are now on our way.
While the need in Ukraine is growing with the duration of the war, it is at the same time becoming more and more difficult to raise funds for humanitarian aid over here.
Several Schiller ARGUS defibrillator/monitor combinations (in the picture even still with printer) are now helping to save lives in Kharkiv oblast. The very compact devices are also highly appreciated because of their very robust construction (metal housing).
Our German QA engineer was at the factory in Fu'an, Fujian Province, China. There, the finished units were randomly tested. The units are noisier than expected, but passed the tests without exception. Next step: shipment to Hamburg port customs warehouse!
We are proud and satisfied that after a long process and multiple interruptions, our emergency gensets for Ukraine are ready.
We received an urgent request from our partners in Rivne for nappies for adults in care facilities. Every day this war goes on, the number of people in need increases. But not only that - the supply of even the most basic necessities is becoming increasingly scarce.
A great example of important donations in kind:
Due to the changeover to a different system, we received 12 complete emergency coniotomy sets with long expiry dates from an ambulance service provider. Our partners on the ground are already waiting for them, because these systems are expensive. Often they constitute the last resort for severely injured patients to secure an airway and thus prevent suffocation.
Thank you very much for thinking along with us!
#1000 sleeping bags: Even in summer, houses are damaged or destroyed, people become homeless every single day.
DRK Kliniken Berlin provided several sets of surgical saws and drills along with batteries and chargers.
Mobile ultrasound devices help with the early detection of internal injuries, which can then be treated adequately.
Schiller Medical, a company from Leipzig/GER, in cooperation with 4-ukraine, donated a stationary (laptop) ECG and a patient monitor to the Institute of Neurology, Psychiatry and Addictive Diseases of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kharkiv.
Today we were finally - after more than three weeks! - able to deliver the urgently needed dialysis material for the pediatric intensive care unit at St. Nicholas in Lviv. The material was in danger of running out due to supply shortages while patients were still being treated.
Donation in kind from a medical distributor: thousands of individually packaged disinfectant wipes.
Delivered at the beginning of April: Extremity splints, battery-operated suction pumps.
From the closing of a rescue station in Germany - 1000 pieces of winter clothing for rescue services -
St. Nicholas Hospital in Lviv is a supra-regional paediatric traumatology and paediatric neurosurgery centre in western Ukraine. In addition to the increased number of patients from the region, patients from other regions whose infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed now have to be treated there.
Trauma care material worth almost € 2,500 to rescue services in the Bachmut area - in part a donation from the company "Medizintechnik Werder".
Important emergency medicines for the Kharkiv rescue service were delivered in cooperation with Pharmacists without Borders.
Today we are able to deliver the first mobile ultrasound machines - thanks to a grant from Gewerkschaften helfen e.V. and support from the manufacturing company Butterfly Network, Inc!