It has just been 20 days since the tragic attack on St Panteleimon's Hospital in Sumy, which killed 10 people and injured more than 22 others.
Our ADRA Slovakia team is here with humanitarian aid. We are greeted in the city first thing in the morning by alarms and anti-aircraft fire. People show us a „shahid“ in the sky, circling ominously over the city...
Thanks to cooperation with partners ADRA Sweden, Direct to Ukraine and donors OneMed we managed to obtain and transport a truckload of medical supplies worth €77,000 after a journey of more than 3,000 km.
Hospital Director Volodimir Poceluev thanked us and said in an interview, „We have selected more than 40 items of medical supplies from OneMed's offer that we need the most at this time: various sterile and dressing materials, infusion sets and other supplies for surgery and traumatology, so that we can treat our patients in the catchment area where we are responsible for more than 200,000 people. As the area is under constant attacks, we also have to deal with a number of complicated injuries caused by gunfire, explosions or mines in both civilians and soldiers.“.
As the truck was too big to fit between the pavilions to the warehouse, we had to transport the pallets to the premises in our van. The team of local ADRA volunteers and the hospital staff who handled it all helped a lot.
In the meantime, the hospital has already cleared out the rubble and is bricking up the large hole in the building caused by the rocket explosion. An entire floor has collapsed and it's a truly pitiful sight. A cross on the pile of rubble caught our eye, but when we got closer we discovered that it was actually a rack of charred monitors from the intensive care unit...
During our visit to Ukraine, we also met with the Deputy Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to Ukraine, Mr. Juraj Sedmak, and informed him about our humanitarian aid activities in Ukraine.
Somehow it does not occur to us that even in the 21st century, on the European continent, hospitals are not a safe place for patients and health professionals. But we cannot solve this, so we focus on what our mission is - to help.
Sirens still sounded a few times during the day and anti-aircraft battery fire could be heard in the distance, but no one paid much attention to it anymore. We just haven't got used to it yet...
We leave town before dark, but these brave medics and people stay on to help.
Thank you to the generous donors from OneMed, our colleagues from ADRA Sweden and our partners and volunteers in Ukraine, as well as to the small donors in Slovakia, whose dedication made it possible for us to transport the aid here.
- From Sumy Stano Bielik, Director of ADRA Slovakia
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