The period of “plugging holes” by volunteers is passing, systemic changes are needed in the provision of troops

[ad_1]

Before the war, Marianna Bilyk was the president of the “Association of Implantologists of Ukraine”, a surgeon–dentist, the owner of a dental clinic in Lviv. Today, the clinic works without her. Only once a week does the doctor participate in complex operations.

For the past two years, she has been coordinating the medical direction as a volunteer Center for Volunteering and Protection (CVZ)which was created by her husband Andrii Nemyrovskyi together with public figures and businessmen of the Lviv Region.

Gained experience in volunteering, constant trips to the front-line zones and de-occupied territories, assessment of the real situation in terms of medical needs there – contribute to the emergence of systemic solutions that allow on an ongoing basis to help the state solve complex issues of medical care for the military and civilian population.

Who, if not us?

“There is a moment when you can enter volunteering, but you cannot leave. You invest in the process, you live it. At first it was an instinct of self-preservation. Today, I already want more, I long for systemic changes,” Marianna Bilyk begins her story.

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, almost every second person volunteered. And aid came in such quantity and on such a scale that it was difficult to understand its quality and necessity. We were given everything, and we accepted everything…

But after a year and a half of war, system funds began to ask donors questions: “Why does a warring country, for example, have trucks of protective masks? We have a war, we don’t have covid!”. They began to explain that we are not a third world country.

We don’t need obsolete, non-working medical equipment and expired expensive drugs that are subject to disposal. We began to tell donors that these are empty expenses, including on logistics.

Marianna recalls how she personally more than once gave a tour for representatives of foreign businesses to her Lviv dental clinic, where a 3D printer prints dental crowns, and doctors work with modern dental microscopes and CT machines.

Marianna answers that in all cases it was a revelation for foreign partners, sometimes they even made a video to show the technique to their doctors.

Transition to projects

In order to systematically help the population of the de-occupied and front-line territories, quickly respond to needs, clearly regulate the volume of orders, control delivery, the Lviv doctor decided to travel and communicate with the locals.

Kherson Oblast was the first departure.

“We looked for paramedics, nurses, at least someone with a medical education in the villages and towns, because we had to quickly analyze the needs in order to start the delivery of aid. There are no pharmacies at all in the frontline villages,” Marianna Bilyk recalls.

At the Center for Medical Research Foundation, we launched the “Civil First Aid Kit” project, which consists of 63 drugs worth $500, these are simple medicines that are in every person’s first aid kit. “First aid kit for grandmothers” – that’s what we call it because the able-bodied population left these territories, and the older generation, pensioners with chronic diseases, remained.

Therefore, for more than a year and a half, the Foundation has been systematically supplying these drugs to all front-line areas to people who do not have access to pharmacies and who do not have the funds to purchase them.

According to Marianna, she has been going to the Donetsk region for the last year, because it is the most difficult. Medicine in the front-line areas is completely different, there are no separate civilian and military hospitals. Medical care is provided to everyone together.

Considering this fact, the Foundation began to systematically help Kramatorsk Hospital N2 with civilian medicine, as well as rehabilitation equipment.

Together with its partners, PrivatBank sent rehabilitation equipment to the renovated rehabilitation department of the city hospital, which helps patients recover faster and get back on their feet after treatment.

Since September, due to the increase in the intensity of fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region, the doctor began visiting the medical centers and stabilization centers of this region. According to Marianna, one of the systemic directions of medicine in the Foundation remains the project of rebuilding medical institutions.

In the de-occupied villages, there is a great need for roof repairs and appropriate building and roofing materials. Today, the Fund is financing the repair of a hospital in the Donetsk region.

Work in the long hours

Today, the medical projects of the Foundation are gradually being transformed. “Much depends on how the situation at the front develops,” Marianna Bilyk explains.

The Foundation actively continues to meet the needs of individual hospitals for specialized clothing for the wounded, which comes from the Meddata database, which is created for volunteers. There is also situational assistance, for example, after the explosion of the Kakhovskaya HPP, there was an urgent need for drugs to normalize the work of the gastrointestinal tract.

“At the same time, we understand that we will work systematically, providing assistance with rehabilitation equipment for Rehabilitation Centers and hospitals, as well as surgical instruments.

There is now an urgent need for this and it is growing every day. From the extreme requests I worked with TsVZ – delivery to the Central District Hospital of Kostyantynivka in Donetsk region of resuscitation beds with an electric drive. Ukrzaliznytsia helped deliver this container.

At the same time, in order to work for a long time, to work with serious projects, it is necessary to solve the issue of operating costs. The fund is currently working on the possibility of grant funding.

“When I return from difficult trips to the front-line areas, I immediately have to get involved in the operational work at the Foundation. The work of the employees of the largest volunteer hub of the Central Military District should be paid,” says doctor Marianna Bilyk.

The Volunteer and Protection Center (CVZ) occasionally turns to socially responsible businesses, international organizations and foundations, private medical institutions in Ukraine and the world for humanitarian or financial assistance.

TsVZ website:
Social networks of TsVZ:

Thank you for your feedback and participation.

Glory to Ukraine and the volunteer movement!

This article was implemented by the “Volunteering and Protection Center” as part of the “Get Involved” Public Activity Promotion Program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Pact in Ukraine. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of Pact and its partners and does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the US government

[ad_2]

Original Source Link