Let’s not invent new prologues, but start like last year: March 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023... For four years in a row, the day of the founding of the Charitable Organization "Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya" has not seemed very festive, because first we had quarantine, and now we have a war. For the fourth time in a row, March sets us new tasks and postpones the celebration. However, there is one BUT – yes, we do not celebrate, instead we commemorate and record new experiences, new opportunities, new achievements, new contacts and the discovery of ourselves as a fairly resilient organism.

The calendar of our life has gone a little bit off – now everything starts at the end of February, and we have recently reported on the first year of this kind. It was all about work, but on birthday still want to talk more about life. For more than two decades, the organization has been known as the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya, but the war year has made it necessary to rename it for the first time, because we are no longer just about medicine and are much wider than Zakarpattia. Without abandoning any of the pre-war areas of work, the team expanded and began to deal with logistics, energy, construction, repairs, transportation... Ambulances for Ukrainian hospitals and off-road vehicles for our defenders can probably be considered a transitional stage, and an excavator that the Committee purchased to rebuild the de-occupied Chernihiv region can be considered a new "four-wheeled experience". Even before the blackout frenzy began, generators from the CO "MACZ" were on their way to the liberated Kyiv region, and then almost the entire map of Ukraine was added, which at that time was not visible on night satellite images. Then, as never before, we wanted light, and more than 400 generators were all about it. 

This year we have become more numerous. "A truck with humanitarian aid has crossed the border" – this message is received almost daily by the volunteers of our humanitarian battalion. The number of such humanitarian cargoes is approaching three hundred, and the number of requests for assistance responded to by the Committee over the year is up to a thousand. Another "front" is about the roof over the head. Traditionally, instead of searching it for ourselves, we provided it to about a hundred IDPs. You probably already know about the Uzhhorod Shelter which is taken care of by our volunteers, and we also have similar projects in Tyachiv and Khust regions. These facilities are also an important part of our anniversary. 

The 23rd year of the organization’s activity was, perhaps, the most intense in terms of communication in all its manifestations. Round-the-clock inquiries, calls, letters, visits are part of the work of the CO "MACZ" in wartime conditions. On the one hand, it keeps you in good shape, and on the other hand, you live with the realization that thousands of people across the country are sure that YOU CAN DO IT. So, no matter how we call ourselves and what we are called (we are even collecting these interpretations), the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya has turned the page of its fruitful 23rd year and is stepping into the 24th at a rather intense pace. We have only one wish for ourselves: that this year will be a victorious one and we will have a completely different March!

We thank everyone who is with us! This unity is especially valuable now!