11 May 2014
MEDIA RELEASE
Ukrainian World Congress suspends aid delivery after Ukrainian Red Cross personnel attacked in Donetsk
The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) has suspended aid delivery to Donetsk after the kidnapping and beating of Ukrainian Red Cross personnel on 9 May 2014.
“The UWC strongly condemns yesterday’s kidnapping and beating of Red Cross personnel and the looting of supplies in Donetsk. With the closure of the Red Cross office in Donetsk, the aid that we had allocated for their efforts is under review. If and when the Red Cross office in Donetsk resumes its operations we will continue our cooperation with the brave medics in the city,” said Ulana Suprun, MD, Director of Humanitarian Initiatives for the UWC.
In Donetsk, the UWC, together with the Canada Ukraine Foundation (CUF), has provided aid and assistance to Red Cross mobile brigades and delivered a ventilator to the Donetsk Oblast Trauma Center. These are only two of the many projects initiated by the UWC Office of Humanitarian Initiatives that is based in Kyiv, Ukraine.
“In April of this year, the UWC and CUF launched a project to provide prostheses to people who lost limbs and eyes during the events related to EuroMaidan,” said CUF representative Krystina Waler. “Part of this project foresees the implementation of cranio-facial reconstructive surgery and micro-surgery of the hands for post-traumatic deformities.”
The UWC and CUF are also closely working with E+, a Ukrainian civic organization, the aim of which is to build a database of people injured during EuroMaidan. This database will be made available to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and other international aid organizations.
The violence surrounding EuroMaidan and subsequent Russian aggression against Ukraine has caused psychological injuries, both obvious and hidden. Witnesses to these events have developed acute stress symptoms, which can progress to become chronic post-traumatic stress disorders. The UWC and CUF have been working with the Maidan Psychological Service in Kyiv and Lviv in establishing rehabilitation centers for those affected. Mobile brigades of psychologists are traveling to those areas where the Ukrainian Army and National Guard are deployed. By providing psychological first-aid and intervention for the soldiers they hope to prevent long-term post-traumatic stress disorders from developing.
Together with the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, the UWC is also organizing a series of training seminars by five world-renowned disaster psychological relief specialists. They will provide training sessions for psychologists and psychiatrists in Ukraine on post-traumatic stress disorder prevention and treatment.
Contact information in Kyiv:
Ulana Suprun, MD
Director of Humanitarian Initiatives
6 Muzeinyi provulok, Room 106
Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel: +380 (091) 971 63 63
