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Polish Aid helps Ukraine fight the COVID-19 pandemic

18.11.2020

Diseases, particularly the infectious ones, know no borders. Similarly, measures aimed not only at eliminating the pandemic but also at mitigating its social and economic effects should cross borders, too. This is the guiding principle for the implementers of Polish Aid projects devised to support the struggle with the coronavirus pandemic.

Polish Aid helps Ukraine fight the COVID-19 pandemic

One of them is the Maltese Medical Corps, which runs the project “Support for anti-COVID-19 measures in four oblasts in Ukraine.” The idea behind the project is to reach professional groups whose work makes them particularly vulnerable to infection and who at the same time do not enjoy top priority protection from the state, that is doctors and nurses. Policemen, teachers, public transport and nursing home staff—the beneficiaries of the project—meet many people on a daily basis. As a result, it is important that they remain safe and do not pose a threat to others. Notably, the work of these people is essential for the proper functioning of the community.

Polish Aid helps Ukraine fight the COVID-19 pandemic

The choice of topics covered during the training sessions for over a thousand inhabitants of many cities in the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi and Ternopil oblasts is thus not surprising. How to ensure safety for oneself and others? How to use personal protective equipment properly? How to tell the basic symptoms of infection? What are the procedures for informing sanitary services? —these are the basic issues tackled during the sessions. Additionally, the participants, who often witness or get involved in emergencies that require immediate health- and life-saving actions, are trained in first aid and provided with personal protective equipment. The facilities and institutions which will send their staff to the training will also receive gloves, disposable masks, hand disinfectant liquids and dispensers, first aid kits and diagnostic equipment such as thermometers and pulse oximeters.

Polish Aid helps Ukraine fight the COVID-19 pandemic

The project would have been impossible to implement without the well-functioning structure of Maltese paramedics in Ukraine, set up with the help of Polish Aid, and without close cooperation of Polish and Ukrainian Maltese Aid Service. In the current epidemic situation and with many restrictions, the training now had to be handed over to Ukrainian trainers. The Ukrainian partner is also responsible for most purchases.

Polish Aid helps Ukraine fight the COVID-19 pandemic

This trust has been built since 2015, when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to carry out the Maltese Aid Service’s project “Development of volunteer emergency medical service system in Ukraine.” The idea was to set up, train and equip teams of volunteer first responders in Kyiv, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk. In following years, such teams were also established in Berehove, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Yuzhnoukrainsk, Mariupol, Zaporizhzhya, Fastiv, and Dnipro. Hundreds of volunteers have been trained and equipped. Changes in the emergency services legislation have been initiated and cooperation with schools started. This project contributed to the activation of many people, mostly youth, often injured as the result of the clashes in eastern Ukraine. Notably, the project also resulted in close cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian paramedics and its fruit were, among others, this year’s undertaking.

Polish Aid helps Ukraine fight the COVID-19 pandemic

The project “Support for anti-COVID-19 measures in four oblasts in Ukraine” of the Relief Service Foundation of the Polish Association of the Order of Malta is carried out in partnership with the Maltese Aid Service of Ivano-Frankivsk. To learn more about the project, go to: https://fmsm.pl/wspieramy-ukraine-w-walce-z-covid-19/

Polish Aid helps Ukraine fight the COVID-19 pandemic