Rescuers Without Borders Visits Rochester

This past weekend Ayala Smotrich, a representative of the French-Israeli non-governmental organization Rescuers Without Borders / Sauveteurs Sans Frontières visited Rochester, NY. SSF is known in Israel for its work providing training and medical trauma kits to shorten the response time to victims of terrorist attacks. They operate under the motto “Whoever saves one life, saves the entire world.” We first met SSF when our friend and colleague Dr. Neil Scheier volunteered with their organization at their refugee welcome center in Medyka, Poland back in April 2022. SSF was the first international NGO to arrive on the Poland-Ukraine border after the start of the full Russian onslaught in February 2022, and immediately set up a medical tent to care for Ukrainians fleeing the violence.

Since then, they have moved their activities into Ukraine itself, and work with local doctors, nurses, and medics to provide needed medical care to people who are internally displaced by the war. They operate a medical bus in the Odesa region, and also have teams delivering medical care in other regions of western Ukraine. They are also organizing training and equipment for Ukrainian medics to provide rapid response to trauma injuries, something that is very much needed all over Ukraine. More illustrations of this work can be seen on their instagram.

We are looking forward to partnering with SSF moving forward. Their work is important in saving lives in Ukraine, and we ask that you consider supporting them!

We are still accepting donations.

We are collecting monetary donations to support the purchase of medical supplies and non-controlled substance medications now for Ukrainian hospitals. Go to our fundraising page to contribute.

We are a non-profit organized under the Rochester Regional Health Foundations.