The year 2023 is coming to an end, and we are trying to structure our activities this year for you and for our own archive. Read on to find out what came of it.

The year began with the 98th humanitarian aid from France, which was collected by our partners from the SAFE Association. In total, during 2023, we received 65 such trucks with medicines, medical equipment and furniture, generators, cars... We also received a field hospital from France, which quickly found itself at the front and is still there to save and treat our Defenders, and an excavator that helps rebuild the de-occupied Chernihiv region. In our opinion, the field hospital and the excavator are the most unusual objects among the aid we have received and transferred.

Also in 2023, our shelters in Uzhhorod, Tyachiv, and Nyzhnye Selyshche in Khust district continued to operate. As of the end of the year, about 100 IDPs live there. In the Tyachiv shelter, the sewerage system was changed this year, and the roof was overhauled as part of a year-long project (we will tell you about it later). According to internal monitoring data, residents confirmed the qualitative changes in their living conditions and the improvement of their comfort. As before, we support our residents with food and other types of humanitarian aid and provide psychosocial support.

The Social Abilitation and Rehabilitation Centre "Parasolka" and the Vilshany Orphanage remain an integral part of the activities of the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya. In Vilshany, the construction of the inclusive cafe-shop "Kosytsia" has been completed and is ready for launch (read more about it HERE and HERE and see the photos). The facility has become another workshop for training, labor adaptation, acquisition of new competencies and socialization of the orphanage’s residents. At "Parasolka", we are developing the area of early intervention, which is in great demand in the region. In May, specialists from Switzerland worked in the workshops of both institutions and held a series of master classes for the children and staff.

We are pleased to talk about our successes in international cooperation at the level of key diplomatic institutions of the EU countries. The beginning of 2023 was marked by the successful implementation of a project supported by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, which significantly helped doctors and rescuers in Zaporizhzhia. In October, Nataliya Kabatsiy and Nadiya Danch, Director and Project Coordinator of the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya, visited Paris, where they met with the staff of the Crisis and Support Centre of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, colleagues from the partner SAFE Association, representatives of the organizations "Fondation de France", "Electriciens sans frontières", "Ambulanciers Sans Frontières". In June, we launched a large project "Improving the Protection of Children in Emergencies in Ukraine by Providing Safe Shelters, Food and Non-Food Items, and Psychosocial Support", which is being implemented with the support of "terre des hommes Deutschland e.V." and funding from the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.

During the first half of the project’s implementation, the Committee donated medical equipment, medicines and supplies to medical institutions in Rakhiv and Uzhhorod in Zakarpattia, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kherson and Donetsk regions. In particular, CAMZ equipped a women’s health room in the Antenatal Clinic No. 1 (Women’s Health Clinic) in Uzhhorod with modern equipment. Volunteers from partner organizations distributed more than 2,500 food kits to families from vulnerable groups in Kherson, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, and Zakarpattia regions. The roof of the Tyachiv shelter was overhauled and a solar power plant was installed. A solar power plant was also installed in the shelter in Nyzhnye Selyshche. We completed the preparatory stage of repairing additional premises that were transferred to the Vilshany Orphanage and will be used to improve living conditions and services for the children in the facility, including children from evacuated residential care facilities from the frontline.

Another area of the project is psychosocial support and organization of cultural and educational leisure activities for children, women with children from among IDPs, volunteers, and military families in Zakarpattia. The NGO "Happy Children" (Uzhhorod), with which the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya has entered into a partnership agreement, is responsible for these activities. Over the six months of the project, more than 1200 people were involved in thematic camps, cultural, educational, rehabilitation and recovery programs, and expert consultations.

The Committee effectively cooperated with Nova Poshta, the country’s largest logistics company. As part of the "Humanitarian Post of Ukraine" program, our organization received regular replenishment of the bonus account, which was used to make more than 500 shipments of humanitarian goods – from small packages to full-size pallets – over the year. In total, the volunteers of the humanitarian battalion collected and sent nearly 750 parcels of aid to medical and social institutions, the military, rescuers, and civilians across Ukraine...

Help for our Defenders. Medicines, bandages, medical equipment for stabilization points, generators, heaters, food, hygiene products, antiseptics and water disinfectants and purifiers were delivered to the military several times a week. If we talk about numbers, it is more than 2500 heaters for the stabilization points and residents of the frontline areas and heating pads for the military, about 2.5 tons of food, more than 1250 pieces of survival equipment, almost 40 pieces of medical equipment, two dozen generators... There is no direction where the Committee’s help for our Defenders has not arrived. And since August, our field hospital has been helping military medics in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk sectors. And about the four-wheelers. In 2023, the Committee donated 13 vehicles to the military, including 5 ambulances, and the rest for evacuation of the wounded.

Read more about the directions and volumes of assistance during the year and a half of the full-scale war HERE.

Separately, about the challenges of the war, one of which was the terrorist attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in June 2023. In the first days after the tragedy, the Committee joined the process of helping the victims. Heat guns for drying out buildings, various heaters, extension cords, and electric cables were sent to Kherson region. Understanding what people in the flooded area need first and foremost, we sent motor pumps, 2 and 2.5 cubic meters’ tanks and cisterns, about 200 canisters, disinfectant tablets for 3 million liters of water, medicines, antiseptics and disinfectants, food, clothes, blankets... Part of the aid was also sent to Mykolaiv region, in particular to the Snihuriv community, which was also affected by the high water.

The MEDICAL Aid Committee IN ZAKARPATTYA is primarily focused on the medical sector, although it has long been not limited to Zakarpattia Oblast, helping doctors all over Ukraine. We calculated the amount of aid we sent to medical institutions during the year and received 187 tons of medicines, medical devices and instruments, 44 tons of bandages, 1425 units of auxiliary means, including crutches, wheelchairs, etc. Almost 250 pieces of medical equipment were transferred, including surgical lamps, defibrillators, ventilators, ultrasound machines, hemodialysis machines, X-rays, etc., and more than 2,200 pieces of hospital furniture. All this help supported medical professionals, in particular military doctors. 

In response to a significant number of requests, we sent 180 tons of food and household items to our Defenders and to the places of residence of internally displaced persons, as well as 158 tons of sanitary products. In 2023, the Committee also transferred 383 tons of household appliances and other technical equipment to various categories of recipients.

Support for energy independence and prevention of electricity shortages due to hostile actions of the enemy continued in 2023. To this end, 263 generators, as well as 5132 heaters and 4717 autonomous lighting devices were transferred to social and medical institutions, the affected civilian population, and our Defenders. This aid was sent to almost all regions of Ukraine, and most of all – to Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv regions and many more... In addition, we sent more than 20 tons of building materials to the team of the Charity Foundation "The Unity of Chernihiv", which is engaged in the free reconstruction of destroyed homes of Chernihiv residents and socially significant facilities, especially in the most destroyed area of the regional center of Bobrovytsya.

Educational and awareness-raising/informational component of the work. As a co-coordinator of the Technical Working Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Zakarpattia Oblast, the Committee organized a seminar in Khust district for social workers, shelter staff, volunteers, and psychologists working with internally displaced persons in war conditions. The partners of the event were the European Cooperative "Pro Longo maï" and the European Public Forum, and theoretical and practical modules of the seminar were supported by, among others, experienced psychologists from Switzerland and France.

As part of the implementation of the Memorandum of Cooperation, Uzhhorod National University hosted theoretical training for lecturers of the Faculty of Health and Physical Education, the Faculty of Postgraduate Education and the Faculty of Medicine in emergency psychology and cognitive behavioral therapy. A Memorandum of Educational Cooperation was also signed between UzhNU, AEPSP (Association Européenne de Psychologie Sapeur-Pompier) and Université Savoie Mont Blanc.

In September, nearly half a thousand specialists joined a lecture on rehabilitation, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. It was a substantive conversation, the topics of which were formed in accordance with the monitoring of requests. In November, the Committee organized an interactive practical seminar "Emergency Pedagogy: European Experience" initiated by Bernd Ruf, a German educator, anthroposophist, director and founder of the Association "Emergency Pedagogy without Borders".

Throughout the year, the Committee’s experts participated in important expert discussions. They concerned the creation of a sustainable system of supported living services for persons with disabilities at the level of territorial communities in Zakarpattia Oblast, volunteering, philanthropy and experience in implementing humanitarian initiatives during the war, etc.

In March-April, three important events for the CAMZ took place in Switzerland – meetings of our charitable organization’s partner associations. Thus, members of the Committee took part in the general meeting of the Association "Parasolka" (Switzerland), the NeSTU Association (Network Switzerland-Transcarpathia/Ukraine) and the coordination meeting of the European Public Forum. Public actions in support of our citizens held captive by the russian occupation authorities were important for the Committee. Among them is our friend, human rights activist, journalist and soldier Maksym Butkevych, who is illegally detained in prison. Also in August, a large partnership meeting of the Foundation of France (Fondation de France) was held in Uzhhorod and brought together more than 40 representatives of 18 public institutions from different parts of Ukraine. In particular, Zakarpattia Oblast was represented at the event by the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya, which, together with the European Cooperative "Pro Longo maï", co-organized an important communication platform. In September, the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattia traditionally held a meeting with partners from the Association "Parasolka" (Switzerland).

Finally, we would like to remind you that in 2023 we changed our legal name and since then we have been called the Charitable Organization "Charity Fund "Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya". However, the change of name did not affect the principles of our work or its scope, which is growing in line with the current situation in the country. Yes, we continue to live in a war that determines our priorities. We do not allow ourselves to get tired, give up, or believe that someone will work for us. We are grateful to everyone who continues to stand with us side by side with the same convictions.

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