March 24: The painful reality of war
This beautiful child we saw in clinic today has just lost her father. He was a civilian soldier fighting for his homeland in Kyiv. This is the painful reality of war, fatherless children and a young widow.Fighting continues, bombs continue to be dropped. The humanitarian corridors were supposed to be open for some hours yesterday for food water and medical [...]
March 23: Urgent need for trauma supplies and medicines
Met with the head of Ministry of Health for western Ukraine today. We met at the humanitarian distribution center where international NGOs and governments shipments come. From there volunteers sort and ship out to the areas of need. When we asked about the drivers he said that they were heroes, as the humanitarian corridors are not honored and it is [...]
March 22: Kindness, solidarity and compassion
A warm and sunny day today. The HOG team went across the border to Ukraine and I stayed in Romania. I spent the day buying medications, organizing medications and doing the paperwork. I arranged a shipment from Omar’s to Kharkiv for tomorrow. We are preparing to transition to Team 2. First person to arrive is Lina from Norway on Thursday. [...]
March 21: Nightly air raids
Crossing the border from Romania to Ukraine today we met a woman going back into Ukraine, She was crying. She had just brought her daughter to Romania and was leaving to return to Kyiv because she had an invalid mother there. She had to return to care for her because there was nobody else. Her journey was going to be [...]
March 18: Liviv was bombed last night
This morning, arriving at another refugee shelter in the university dorm, people were really stressed and exhausted. Liviv was bombed last night and the air raid sirens went off starting at 3 am until 5 am. They go off whenever a missile is detected. The people have to leave their beds and go into a make shift air raid shelter. [...]
March 17: Saying goodbye to one’s husband …
This morning, crossing the border, we saw 2 youngish-looking women saying goodbye to their husbands. Long hugs, many tears. I couldn’t take their photo and intrude on what could be a final moment between them. I barely held back my tears thinking, could I say goodbye to my husband or son knowing he was an unprepared, untrained soldier against a [...]