News

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. Thanks to a generous individual donation, we are now able to supply 10 BLUETTI solar power stations plus the corresponding solar panels. These can be used to charge and operate at least lights and radios and, if available, mobile phones. Thanks to our reliable partners at tvorydobro Berlin, the delivery will be on its way tomorrow!
Thank you to everyone involved for your heart and your initiative!

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. Partly due to the change in the front line, Russian airstrikes on the city of millions continue to increase without pause. We are launching an urgent fundraising campaign for 10 emergency power stations with solar panels. Each one has a capacity of around 1000W, which is enough for light, telephone and radio at the workplace. In addition, the batteries can be charged from the regular grid when power comes back on. 

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. Over 150 rockets and cruise missiles were launched on 22nd of March alone, most of which hit cities in Ukraine. In Kharkiv and parts of Dnipro, the electricity and internet have been cut off. We are still waiting for a sign of life from our colleagues working there . They are risking their lives and health to help the people injured and those made homeless by the attacks.
We are currently unable to fulfil even the most urgent requests for assistance in material with the resources available to us.
Please continue to help us, every Euro goes directly to help the people on the ground!

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. These tools are urgently needed due to the continuing high number of patients affected by the war. The instruments are checked, sterilised and packed by specialists from our volunteer staff.
After our stock had almost been used up in the meantime, donations in kind have recently been arriving from third-party organisations. Thank you very much!
Reminder: We can also issue official tax-reducing certificates for donations in kind!

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 anaesthesia procedures are applied using ultrasound and are a highly effective and resource-saving method of pain relief. However, there is an acute shortage of suitable needles (ultrasound-compatible, without stimulation). The needles cost €8 each, and even more if equipped with a catheter. With more than 200 treatments a month on site, we can hardly afford this on our own. That's why I'm asking my professional colleagues among my contacts in particular to help us with donations in kind or money so that we can maintain anaesthesia for seriously injured people in Ukraine! Thank you!

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. Heat loss is one of THE main dangers for injured people and can quickly tilt the balance in between life and death. Teaching and training in this area is vital. From blizzard blankets and heat packs for hands and feet to self-heating rescue blankets, we procure the material that can save lives in the hands of these colleagues.
We can only do this with your help! Every euro goes a long way.

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. These pictures were sent to us along with many others. The project meanwhile stays active - we will turn any additional donations earmarked for it into more sleeping bags. 
Many thanks to the helpful #donors who made this possible!

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. Here, Dr Kirsenko, a surgeon at an oncology clinic in Kyiv, has received a delivery. I was working with these colleagues in November when supplying mobile clinics in recently de-occupied areas. Many thanks Doreen Fuhr and Dr Christian Friese from the DRK Kliniken Berlin for their sustained logistical support. Without the infrastructure of a larger clinic, this campaign would simply not be feasible.
We still need donations in kind and money for our medical department. 

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. There is nothing we can do to change this type of warfare. But we have sent 50 of our tried-and-tested Individual First Aid Kits (IFAK) to Kharkiv, which emergency crews can take with them to provide first aid to the injured. They contain a standardized set of dressings and tools of high quality. That´s why these are very expensive at around €110 each.
We are dependent on your donations to be able to help!
Stand with Ukraine! 

t has taken almost an eternity due to new customs regulations in Ukraine and the truckers' strike at the borders. But thanks to our close-knit network of reliable Ukrainian (self-)transporters, we can start the New Year with some good news: 
Almost 500 children's sleeping bags have now been delivered to the frontline districts of Ukraine. Many thanks to our hard-working helpers and all those who donated! 
The campaign is ongoing! According to our Ukrainian partners, 1000 more sleeping bags are needed every month, for both children and adults.

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. To everyone who is writing cards, sending chocolates or working on the annual review, we wish you all the best and keep our fingers crossed :).
Today, the first children's sleeping bags finally arrived in the conflict area in Charivkska Oblast. New customs regulations in Ukraine and the ongoing truckers' strike in Poland and Slovakia mean that we rarely get more than a hundred items away per transport. But we keep at it - every day.
Donations help us (also every day) at https://4-ukraine.de
Happy and relaxed holidays to all!

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). Recently, young colleagues from anesthesia departments have also started using the devices for regional anesthesia. This involves anesthetising individual limbs or regions of the body in a simple, effective, safe and resource-friendly way. We also carry out remote teaching via video in this context. Currently we are working on shipping further devices to clinics in Ukraine.
Please continue to support us actively!

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. With Pharmacists without borders Germany, we have been able to establish a strong partnership. The association from Munich has delivered around €40,000 worth of medicines to ensure a reliable supply of essentials. In this tried-and-tested cooperation, we have ensured the professional medical requirements planning and Civilfleet-Support e.V./Leave No One Behind has organised the fast and safe transport to eastern Ukraine. 
These colleagues are great!

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. People are still losing their homes because of the war or are already living in emergency accommodation for internally displaced people. With our "Noch #1000Winterschlafsaecke" campaign, we want to provide at least a bit help so that fewer people have to suffer from the cold. We have already delivered over 1000 sleeping bags this autumn - a drop in the ocean. In the next round, large quantities of children's sleeping bags are also planned for the first time.
Current donation status: €16,000 of the projected €32,000. A whole sea container full of sleeping bags costs app. 42.000€ , which are is to 30% cheaper per item in this quantity. 
Donations (inland revenue deductable) can be made using the form on these pages. Thank You!

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.
After sharing not only the car but also the floor and cots in the base with the team for quite a while, it was a little difficult to say goodbye. Nevertheless, there is still a lot to do (talks in Kyiv tomorrow) and various new partners in the hospital and emergency services who are looking forward to our support. 
Speaking of support, we also urgently need further funding for materials and medicines in the area of emergency medicine. 
You can donate directly to our individual projects here on our site.

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. But the snowstorm would have extended the journey time extremely, so that we first had to refill our oxygen cylinders before we could continue on to the next mission. In general, there is still a great shortage of materials for the rescue services, from bandage scissors to tubes and medication. We have already shared the medicines that were urgently transferred from Germany with various colleagues in the emergency services and hospitals. Your donations made this and many other different deliveries of materials possible. 
Please continue to actively support our projects "Lifesavers for Ukraine" and "1000 more winter sleeping bags"! 

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.
However, we are unable to fully cover the specialised needs of this facility from our own stocks. A major supplier of such instruments had previously agreed to supply them on humanitarian terms back in October.
However, "humanitarian conditions" here still means around €12,000 needed in total. 
Make a donation us so that more cancer patients in Ukraine can be treated safely on a daily basis!

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. Given the abundance of equipment and materials now in use in Ukraine, hardly any two pieces of the puzzle fit together. Even the power supply can pose a challenge: US equipment has a 110V power supply and special plugs.
Which consumables are available locally? Otherwise very expensive machinery may end up standing around unusable. Who is trained and how, who can operate what? Are there manuals in the right language? Who can repair something if it breaks down?
Once this has been clarified, the next step is procurement. The huge quantities of material required incentivise price speculation. Exclusive contracts, hoarding, supply bottlenecks, customs regulations - all of this makes almost detective-like research a perequisite to obtain the right goods at realistic prices.
We handle the donations given to us with utmost care and we go to great lengths to buy as economically as reasonably possible.
In this example, we managed to score an oxygen concentrator from US Army stocks that makes the rescue teams independent of often hard to come by cylinder filling. After a long back and forth, we were finally able to have it deliverd to us and then (as always free of charge) to Ukraine.
The second example is the so-called IT clanps, a device for bleeding control that still works when other devices are no longer effective. If it is available, a seriously injured patient has a chance of survival, otherwise they might not.
 

Following an extensive reloading and onward transport operation, all 50 emergency power generators have now been delivered to the 39 end users in Ukraine. These include schools and kindergartens as well as shelters for internally displaced persons in the regions of Mykolaiv, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv, Rivne and Kyiv.
In conclusion, our Ukrainian partners wrote:

Friends, greetings to all!
The last generators arrived at their destination today. Everything is fine, no problems.
You have all made a great effort.
Glory be to friendship! 

We have nothing to add to that. It's great that this major operation has now been successfully completed.

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. When our colleagues from TvoryDobro in Berlin had their clearly marked van broken into and several of these emergency power generators stolen, it was an obvious decision. We wanted to bypass the profiteers in Europe and procure many high-quality, quiet, economical and mobile devices directly from China. It was not easy to negotiate with Chinese manufacturers in Shanghai or Fu'an across the distance.  Luckily, we soon found a local German engineering office whose amiable boss drove 600 kilometres to the factory for free and checked the quality of our appliances according to a custom-made protocol of his. In the meantime, the Ukrainian government had removed generators from the list of humanitarian aid supplies - 19% tax plus customs duty would have been due on import to Germany and then tax and customs duty again on export to Ukraine. It is only thanks to the efforts of Osteuropahilfe Schweiz and their extensive experience that the devices could be delivered tax and duty free to schools, day care centres and shelters today - 6 months and hundreds of phone calls and emails later.
We are looking forward to the next round, which will certainly go faster now. Thanks to Rolf Schmidt in Shanghai, Mr Müller in Einsiedeln/CH, our great partners from CivilFleet Support/LeaveNoOneBehind, Gewerkschaften Helfen e.V., Prosvita Rivne/UA, R+C Seefracht Hamburg, Helge Rix from Kiel and the tried and tested teams from 4-Ukraine.de and TvoryDobro Berlin!
 

We have had an intensive cooperation with the St. Nicholas Children's Hospital in Lviv since our first mission to Ukraine. This was right after the start of the full scale invasion in March 2023. The hospital has 440 beds, and in addition to the usual patient load of a supra-regional centre, it now also has to admit many children from other parts of Ukraine who can no longer be treated locally. These are seriously injured children, but also chronically ill or oncological patients.
The equipment is good in itself. However, this once again shows how important it is to coordinate aid services on site and by someone familiar with the subject as well as the language. Often, parts of the equipment that come from different countries do not fit together. There is a lack of suitable spare parts and often also of the matching consumables. That is why we will still make the effort to coordinate directly with our partners on site.

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.

"These are several sets of surgical and gynaecological medical instruments from Germany, which will allow us to perform high-quality surgeries and primary wound care," says Ihor Bogdanets, the hospital's chief nurse. "We have been using the instruments we have for many years."

"This assistance is a practical response to the Rokytne hospital's request for support from German NGO 4-Ukraine Berlin," says Rokytne village head Hryhoriy Targonsky, who inspected the equipment together with the doctors (pictured) and thanks the German benefactors for their charitable assistance, which is very much appreciated.

"Volunteer Ivan Vetrov helped us establish communication with German charities," added Oleg Kostyuk, the hospital's general director.

Oleksandra YURKOVA.

Photo by Svitlana KIBUKEVICH.

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. Thanks to the generous support of 4-Ukraine, the ward is now equipped with a modern portable ultrasound machine of the Butterfly iQ+ brand. The Saving an Angel Foundation and its ambassador Rea Garvey would like to thank you very much!

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. (map copyright of vesselfinder.com)

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. Now his association, us from 4-Ukraine, the company TZMO from Biesenthal near Berlin and the logistics professionals from Osteuropahilfe Switzerland have joined forces and have been able to deliver 22 pallets of care supplies for facilities in Rivne and Chernivtsi. Actually, this is not a field of work for 4-Ukraine. But when the calls for help from care facilities in Ukraine became more frequent and urgent, we finally took action. This first cooperation went surprisingly smoothly and was a lot of fun, despite the very numerous and diverse partner organisations participating! Thanks to all involved.

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. Just in time before the start of the cold season, we are helping to provide people in Ukraine with the most basic necessities: a warming cover for cold days.

In the coming days, 100 sleeping bags especially for children will follow.

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. Our 50 mobile diesel emergency power generators from Fuzhou are now on their way to us on the high seas. First, they will arrive in the port of Hamburg, where our supporters from R+C Seetransport will take them into a bonded warehouse. From there, the sealed container will take them directly to Ukraine, where our partners are already waiting.
Great work. Thanks to everyone involved

!

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. Nevertheless, we were able to help Apotheker ohne Grenzen Deutschland e.V. | Pharmacists without borders Germany deliver almost 90,000€ worth of medicines to our joint partner clinic in #Lviv, the St. Nicholas Children's Hospital. 

Here is an original post (on Facebook) from our partners there.

 

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). Thanks to Saving an Angel and Rea Garvey for the really great cooperation!

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. 50 of these low-noise economical mobile diesel gensets are now making the long journey by sea and land to Ukraine, where clinics and medical facilities are already waiting for them. This is only possible because of a wide network of support. For example, our German quality inspector now drives 650km from Shanghai to Fuzhou and does the final inspection, free of charge and out of solidarity.

We are often asked why we procure the generators in China and not here or in Poland or in Ukraine itself. The answer is still the same, even after extensive research on our part: The generators that can be bought here or locally are the same devices from China - only 50 - 100% percent more expensive than if we buy them in the Far East and deliver them ourselves. We try to get the maximum benefit for the people in Ukraine out of every euro donated. That is why this effort is worthwhile and neccessary.
 

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. The more domestic supply chains and production facilities are damaged or destroyed, the more has to be procured expensively abroad.
We want to provide at least two pallets of hygiene items for a pre-organised transport around 15 August. 
We urgently need more donations for this!

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 your consideration!

#1000 sleeping bags:
Even in summer, houses are damaged or destroyed, people become homeless every single day. Thanks to now well-established processes, these sleeping bags took only a few days from the time they were requested from us to the time they were delivered to Eastern Ukraine. 
Thanks to our network for their constant commitment!

When we were offered decommissioned surgical drilling and sawing systems for Ukraine Aid by the DRK Kliniken Berlin, we were skeptical at first. Would the equipment be compatible with the Ukrainian systems? How to get the heavy shipment there in one piece? What about spare parts? With the help of our resourceful partners, however, we were able to solve these questions surprisingly quickly and say: Thank you!!!

With the support of a manufacturing company (Butterfly Network, Inc.) and funding from German charity "Gewerkschaften Helfen", we have already been able to deliver several of these portable devices to Ukraine, where they are now being used in rescue services. The second round of procurement for further facilities is currently underway.

A project at 4-ukraine can come about in two ways...

a) our Ukrainian partners make us aware of an urgent need - we help to meet it as quickly as possible.

b) we have donated equipment or materials that we think could be useful for others and ask our network if there is a need for this kind of equipment or material: Tools, implants, defibrillators, patient monitors, ventilators, perfusors and ECGs have already been reported as being in need, and been delivered accordingly.

In this case, the well-known singer Raymond Garvey - lead singer of the band Reamonn - had approached us. He asked for support in procuring in-patient ECGs for clinics under reconstruction in eastern Ukraine. "Saving an Angel " foundation, of which Garvey is the founder, primarily aims to improve the lives of disadvantaged children. After intensive research, we got in touch with Schiller, who not only provided the equipment needed there, but also additional units for our beneficiaries.

We are really happy and grateful for the active support!

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.

Various rescue services and clinics in Ukraine can make good use of this in kind donation.

In mid-March, we received a request from a volunteer medical evacuation service in the Chasiv-Yar area (Donbass / Eastern Ukraine) for urgently needed material for the treatment of severely injured patients.

High-quality safety clothing (Thank you, Cadus e.V.)

Volunteers painstakingly sorted, inventoried and packed the clothes.

Tvory Dobro took care of the transport and distribution to the rescue teams in Ukraine.

Particularly due to the critical supply situation, there are often supply bottlenecks in the area of medical goods and medicines, which can endanger patient care.

Through our work, operating theatres and the children's intensive care unit are supplied with the necessary medicines in a plannable and targeted manner. In close coordination with local Ukrainian partners and Apotheker ohne Grenzen e.V. (Pharmacists without Borders), critical medicines worth over 90,000 € were delivered.

Materials for use in first aid for severely injured patients are now hard to come by and often very expensive. For us, this is a clear and very transparent way to help. If the right material is available on site, the victims of war whether civilian or conscripted, at least have the chance of a new life. Without this, people usually die before they can even reach a hospital.

With the increasing destruction of regional and local supply chains in combination with the permanently exorbitant consumption, supply bottlenecks occur time and again. This is especially true for life-saving emergency medicines. As soon as such an emergency is reported to us by our local partners, we can react quickly and accurately. Often we have the medicines on site within days.

Mobile ultrasound devices help in the early detection of internal injuries. This is important so that such injuries can be treated in time in case of emergency.