Great news! Back in January we raised $21,975 to deliver medical supplies and automatic electronic defibrillators (AEDs) to frontline ambulances in Ukraine. It has taken several months, but finally we can report the delivery from Poland to Ukraine of 11 BeneHeart C1A AEDs and a BeneHeart D30 AED. These AEDs have been installed in frontline ambulances operated by the rescue service of the Red Cross of Ukraine.
We would like to again thank our many donors, and especially our Platinum Sponsors Wegmans and aTonalHits, our Silver Sponsors The Rochester Academy of Medicine, and our Bronze Sponsors Allison L. Giordano, MD and The Ukrainian Federal Credit Union for their incredible support in making this important delivery possible.
Great news! This week the Ukraine Medical Relief Fund received the funds raised last month at the successful holiday concert organized by the 8th graders at Allendale-Columbia School in Rochester, NY, with a wonderful performance by Katha Zinn on violin and Illya Filshtinskiy on piano.
The Allendale-Columbia School 8th grade students presented us a check for $8337.51. We will be immediately putting these funds toward a humanitarian aid project for a Ukrainian hospital, and are currently discussing the logistics with our partner Future For Ukraine Foundation. We will of course update you when we have the details on completion of this project.
Asthma medications that we sent previously to the 1st Children’s Polyclinic in Kharkiv continue to be distributed to patients as they need them. Here are some updated photos:
For the healthcare providers among us here in the United States, we have been dealing with an exceptionally busy season of respiratory illnesses. Can you imagine, on top of that, caring for your patients while your hospital has no heat or electricity, and your neighbor is throwing rockets at your homes?
Some of our donated blankets have already made it from Lviv to the frontlines in Donbass. Our contact messaged us:
“The first box of blankets went to Donbass to the soldiers… they mentioned that they use them to wrap themselves in cold nights before getting into a sleeping bag. This gives them a chance to take off a wet jacket for a few hours and warm up before returning back to their shift outside.”
Our child neurology colleague in Lviv shared this video with us for the Christmas season. The children’s choir Dudaryk performs a lullaby dedicated to all of the children of Ukraine who have suffered in this war.
Winter has arrived to Ukraine. For many places in the country, there are outages of heat and electricity due to the malicious attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure by its terrorist neighbor. These attacks are intended to bring maximum suffering to Ukraine’s civilian population, and we all dream of the day the perpetrators are in the dock at the Hague on trial for their crimes. But in the meantime Ukrainians are resilient. And they have many friends who will help them through these dark days.
This past weekend the eighth grade students and their teachers at the Allendale-Columbia School in Rochester NY organized a fundraiser concert for the Ukraine Medical Relief Fund. Classical musicians Katha Zinn and Illya Filshtinskiy performed on violin and piano. They presented a wonderful program, and were joined for the finale by the Allendale-Columbia student choir for a beautiful rendition of “Carol of the Bells.”
