Thanks to a good sponsor we were able to send a whole package of phones and tablets to Kharkiv. A modern portable ultrasound probe paired with a phone from the Netherlands lets this doctor take quick scans. The more mobile this kind of equipment is, the better it stands up to attacks, power cuts and other trouble, so that care can be given even in wartime conditions.
This year the big Christmas tree in Kharkiv stands in the metro, underground and safe from attack. The city itself is cheerful enough, with a Christmas metro train and decorations along the roads. And Russian fireworks every night, because the attacks carry on through the holidays too. So we carry on as well, raising budget for vehicles, for medical supplies and for IT. Thank you to everyone who contributed this past year.
Last month we drove vehicles full of practical goods to Kharkiv. Alongside a solid stock for acute care we brought much requested parts for the vehicles, computers and laptops. The visits are good for the contacts and the network, which keeps the truck transports running smoothly and helps us gather the right things back in the Netherlands. That is what the whole project comes down to: the right things, with the right people. Thanks to everything donors in our network here put in, we manage it regularly, and that is wonderful. Thank you.
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.