As of July 27, 2022, 414 attacks on healthcare infrastructure have been verified in Ukraine. To help fill in the gaps in the healthcare system caused by these Russian attacks and refugee/IDP movement, HHI sent the first three of 15 mobile medical clinics to Ukraine. These clinics were fully stocked with medical supplies and equipment when they arrived. The pictures below show the clinics in use mere days after their arrival in the country. The remaining 12 clinics include trauma clinics, maternal and child health clinics, and a laboratory, and they will ship in August.
HHI has also sent an additional $12 million in medicines and medical aid that is currently being distributed by partners. That brings the total amount of medicines and medical supplies sent to Ukraine to $47 million.
Our partner The Gorta Group has been helping to distribute medical aid sent by Heart to Heart International throughout Ukraine. Step-In is an on-the-ground partner that is delivering our hygiene kits as well as food and other necessary supplies by automobile and bicycle to some of the hardest to reach areas in Ukraine affected by the fighting.
Those delivering this aid say: “Hygiene kits are a priority for urgently evacuated people.”
Norm Sheehan from The Gorta Group visited Heart to Heart International’s headquarters in Lenexa, Kansas, to discuss the partnership and ways we can continue to work together to help the people of Ukraine. Sheehan has been into Ukraine and describes meeting with 16 and 17-year-old soldiers who were getting ready to head to the frontlines. When asked how they were feeling, Sheehan recalls them responding: “We’re scared. We don’t want to die, but this is our country, and we want it back.“
Sheehan said the biggest needs they are hearing about are medical needs and praised our in-country partner Step In for the work they were doing to get our medical aid quickly to the areas that need it most. “The impact of the supplies that have been sent is great. To be able to get the needed medicines and supplies to hospitals that have been bombed and are now operating out of a nearby gym or to have the ability to treat injured soldiers is important and necessary work.”
(C) (from l-r) Wes Comfort, HHI; Kim Carroll, HHI; Norman Sheehan, The Gorta Group; Dan Neal, HHI; Emily Schmidt, HHI; in front of one of the next clinics that will be sent to Ukraine.
(R) Norman Sheehan explains on a map of Ukraine where the aid is going and where the needs are the greatest.