Ukraine

Axes of intervention

Care and surgery
Training and skills transfer
Building and equipping hospitals
Prevention and screening
Emergencies and humanitarian crises

Mission start date: 2022

Since March 2022, La Chaîne de l'Espoir has been mobilizing to support the Ukrainian healthcare system in caring for the wounded following the war launched by Russia.

Background

Responding to health and humanitarian emergencies

40% of the population

in Ukraine needed humanitarian assistance in 2024.

+ More than 1,550 attacks

against healthcare that affected healthcare providers, supplies, facilities, warehouses and means of transport, including ambulances, between 2022 and 2024.

Multiplication by 12

in the number of patients registered in emergency, trauma and burn departments.

Sources: UNHCR, WHO, OHCHR

Since February 24, 2022, war has been raging in Ukraine. Ukrainians are under fire from bombardments and are victims of Russian army assaults. The situation is dramatic, and La Chaîne de l’Espoir is committed to supporting the care of the wounded, and equipping and supplying hospitals.

Since the beginning of the fighting, massive bombardments have hit Ukraine’s cities, killing and injuring thousands of civilians. These attacks are also causing major destruction and damage to homes and civilian infrastructure, including essential services for children such as schools and health facilities.

In many parts of the country, access to healthcare is extremely difficult, as doctors are desperately short of medical equipment and medicines. Our teams visited so-called “front-line” hospitals, close to the conflict, and “second-line” health establishments, where the wounded are transferred once they have stabilized. Everywhere, the findings were the same: the medical equipment stock is aging, and some essential equipment is missing for certain operations, such as polytrauma surgery.

Attacks on energy infrastructure are also disrupting public services, including the supply of water, electricity and heating, as well as healthcare, education and social protection.

Our humanitarian aid action in Ukraine

Emergency support for the Ukrainian hospital system and rescue network

Since the start of the Russian invasion, medical supply chains have been disrupted, or even completely interrupted in some areas.

From the very first days of the conflict, La Chaîne de l’Espoir mobilized to send medical equipment to Ukraine to help care for the wounded in surgery, intensive care and burns wards:

trauma and surgery kits,
consumables and small equipment for the OR,
anesthesia equipment, operating room equipment, suction and nerve stimulation equipment, surgical motors, endoscopy, radiology, ultrasound and diagnostic equipment, laboratory equipment, resuscitation equipment, sterilization equipment.

“Given the urgency of the situation and the number of critical cases to be treated, sending medical equipment and materials is an essential action to help save lives.”

Loïc Vendrame, Ukraine program coordinator for La Chaîne de l’Espoir

Training in war medicine

Through a partnership with the NGO Mehad (formerly UOSSM-Fr), La Chaîne de l’Espoir has also trained 245 medical staff from all over the country in techniques specific to conflict zones, such as emergency ultrasound and the management of psycho-trauma (by the end of December 2022).

Needs assessment in conjunction with local health authorities

Our teams also make regular visits to the field to assess needs, identify priority hospitals and adapt support in conjunction with health authorities.