Ambulance delivered to Trokhizbenka

Around one year after our donation campaign began, we have finally reached our target: In December 2016, our partner organisation Vostok SOS handed over a fully-equipped ambulance from Germany to the medical station in Trokhizbenka, Donbass. This means an enormous improvement in medical care for several villages next to the frontline. We would like to thank all the donors who made this possible!

(Video is in Russian, only German subtitles provided)

The village of Triokhizbenka in Eastern Ukraine is located only a few hundred metres from the frontline. The small village near Luhansk is under Ukrainian control, but only a river separates it from the territory controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces. Trokhizbenka and the surroundings have been the scene of heavy fighting, evidenced by artillery fire damage. Recently, on 31 January 2017, the school building was damaged by mortar fire.

Most of the remaining inhabitants of Triokhizbenka are elderly and ill. Their medical care has deteriorated considerably since 2014, when the fighting started. Triokhizbenka and the surrounding villages are cut off from their former county town, many roads are damaged, and it is more than one hour’s drive to the next proper hospital.

At least there is a medical point in Trokhizbenka, although it lacked its own vehicle until now. Doctor’s assistant Liliya Shvets, who has been responsible for around 2000 inhabitants in Trokhizbenka and nearby villages for many years now, was using her own scooter to get to patients for a considerable time. Transporting patients was clearly impossible.

Temporarily, a car was rented, but the contract expired in December 2016. Doctor’s assistant Liliya Shvets is all the more grateful for the medical point now owning its own vehicle: “The area we work in is exceptionally large, 52 kilometres along the river Severskii Donets. The villages are separated from each other. Thus it actually was not possible to provide medical care without a car.”

Libereco transferred 3400 Euro of donations to our Eastern Ukrainian partner organisation Vostok SOS to buy and repair the second-hand ambulance. The money was collected in the course of our 2015 and 2016 donation campaigns.