The Dutch healthcare magazine FMT Gezondheidszorg published a fine interview with Ruben Hoogenberg of Almeva and with Ron and Niels. Faced with the commitment of Almeva and all the ambulance stations, modesty suits us. Their help is part of why the medics there can save lives. We regularly get messages from families or from the people themselves: small scale help is warmly welcomed and ends up in the right hands.
One of the volunteer groups is building a new vehicle for transporting the wounded, in practice a van pressed into service as an ambulance. It is done simply, but by people who know what they are doing. Through Almeva we arranged a good stock of consumables: tourniquets, infusion sets, intraosseous drills and gauze.
This Land Rover Discovery has been checked over by the mechanics at Bas4Cars and we are taking it to Kharkiv loaded with supplies. Alongside the vehicle we are bringing a fresh stock of trauma supplies and practical items such as generators and IT equipment.
Thanks to Almeva and the ambulance stations working together, we can send pallets of trauma supplies to Kharkiv on a regular basis. In return, colleagues at the ambulance station in Kharkiv sent us the sliding door of an ambulance riddled with shrapnel. It is now on display at Almeva's new premises in Almere. In the Netherlands we work behind the same kind of doors, which makes it striking to see.
The latest shipment has arrived at ETOC in Kharkiv, with thanks to everyone who helped arrange the transport. Four pallets of supplies from ambulance stations and directly from Almeva are hugely welcome. This time they hold personal protective equipment and trauma materials of the kind used in Dutch ambulance care as well: tourniquets, haemostatic gauze, infusion materials and tracheostomy sets. The doctors and nurses are delighted with them.