A contribution to the special campaign at the Children’s Hospital in Odessa, June 3, 2024
Since an IGFM Christmas campaign in 2022 for sick and war-disabled children, the IGFM has repeatedly received calls for help from the central children’s hospital in Odessa/Ukraine. In April 2024, an IGFM member, at high personal risk, delivered 10,000 venous catheters financed by donations to the hospital in a small truck and in May the annual requirement of surgical suture material with a total value of around €80,000. Further missions are planned.
The IGFM’s humanitarian aid is multifaceted: with its donations it supports the work for refugees in Ukraine, but it also supports Ukrainian refugees in neighboring countries, such as Lithuania and Latvia, and closes gaps in the supply system in remote places near the Belarusian and Russian borders through financial aid and by sending truckloads of humanitarian aid.
The IGFM members and friends in Ukraine face the consequences of Russia’s invasion every day in their homeland. Lawyers Anastasiya and Anton Alekseyev from the IGFM Ukraine section (IAC ISHR) have decided not to flee but to stay in their homeland. Since February 22, 2022, they have been helping people in need. The IGFM Ukraine focuses on the distribution of drinking water rations, food, hygiene items and medical aid for internally displaced people in Ukraine. Its target groups are women with their children, people with disabilities and the elderly. It supports hospitals and orphanages, maternity wards, homes for the elderly and those with disabilities.
Special campaign for the children’s hospital in Odessa
Since IGFM member Sylvia Wähling visited the children’s hospital in Odessa at Christmas 2022 to give gifts to sick and war-disabled children, she has been friends with the nurse Svetlana. Since then, she has reported how the war has put a strain on her private life and presented the hospital, its employees, the young patients and their parents with particular challenges. In our monthly newspaper “For Human Rights” we report why we want to help and how we can help. In February, in cooperation with the Cottbus Human Rights Center, we called for donations for venous catheters, and in April we were able to hand over 10,000 units plus accessories worth around €37,000.
Dr. Marina Vakaruk and the letter she wrote requesting further humanitarian aid; Photo: private
Due to the constant shelling of Odessa, significantly more operations had to be carried out on war-disabled children. After an urgent appeal from Dr. Marina Vakaruk, the medical director of the clinic, to send surgical suture material, we asked for donations again at the beginning of this month. We are happy to announce that we have reached our donation goal of 40,000 euros and that the urgently needed surgical suture material is already in use on site! On May 13, 2024, IGFM member Jens Leisenberg was able to hand over the material to the children’s hospital. This is a great help to the 400 children who are currently waiting for an operation! The IGFM would like to thank all donors for their support.
Suture material in use; Photo: IGFM
While we were already on our way to Odessa with the suture material, we received an offer to collect 45 pallets of general surgical supplies free of charge from a yard near Lübeck for further use in the Ukraine – our next assignment!
It is important to us that you, dear readers, hear directly from Ukraine that the ISHR is not just a spectator in the safe West, but that our members and friends in Ukraine are facing the consequences of the war started by Putin every day in their own homeland.
We can only provide this help because of your sympathy and support. We thank you very much for that. We continue to rely on your generous donations.
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