Thanks to generous donors and the unfailing help of Almeva B.V., we were able to meet a request from trauma surgeons with pallets of medical supplies. They asked for transfusion sets, pressure bandages, tourniquets and haemostatic gauze: practical things for trauma care. Because of Almeva we ship material of the same quality the ambulance services in the Netherlands use. That way the donations we receive turn into the best possible help for the people there.
Kharkiv is alive, thanks to its people and in spite of the war. Last month we visited the city to bring vehicles and relief supplies. The human side of the work is perhaps what we add most. The coffee is still better than ours, but in the favourite coffee place there is a bag of tourniquets and pressure bandages on the wall where a defibrillator would hang in the Netherlands. People are holding on. They want to, and they have no other choice.
HackerHotel 2025 gave us the chance to explain how we help the people of Kharkiv from the Netherlands, and of course to raise funds. The talk by Roman and Niels was recorded and can be watched online. It gives a clear picture of the situation there, of the work during evacuations and after shelling. It puts a face to the news about Ukraine. That does not make it easier to take in, but it does make it more human.