Australian allies purchase equipment for Zaporizhzhia Children's Hospital operating room

Australian women allies raised almost 700,000 UAH and purchased modern medical equipment for the operating room of the City Children's Hospital No. 5 in the frontline city of Zaporizhzhia - a mobile X-ray C-arm.

The mobile X-ray C-arm is a surgical X-ray machine with a movable electron-optical transducer, which is necessary to improve the detail of images. The name comes from the C-shaped arm used to connect the X-ray source and the detector.

The project was co-organized by the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Women, represented by the Chair of the Australian Federation's Regional Council, Lubomyr Kai, who began helping hospitals in Zaporizhzhia almost from the first days of the full-scale war against Ukraine.

The project was initiated by Natalia Alyokhina, head of the Volunteer Sich NGO (Sydney, Australia), who, together with her allies in Zaporizhzhia, has repeatedly helped the City Children's Hospital #5 purchase the necessary equipment for bedridden children, such as nebulizers, mucus suction, bedding, and an operating room table. Knowing the hospital's need for expensive X-ray equipment, she turned to the Ukrainian Women's Union and Australian Women's Union for help in raising funds.

To raise the necessary amount, sisters from the distant continent organized fairs where they sold traditional Ukrainian cuisine and various artistic products. The project was attended by allies of the Lesya Ukrainka Chapter in Geelong (executive committee: Mariia Liubchenko, Melissa Horpynych-Misut, Olia Vasylenko, and Yevhenia Kaminska), the South Australia, NSW, and Victoria branches - the Olha Basarab, Olena Bdzilka, Anna Yaroslavivna, and Mriya branches.

 

"It was not easy to find, order, pay for and deliver the C-arc to Zaporizhzhia in the context of the war in the country, but we did it together. In December, we found a company that sells medical equipment, negotiated with the bank, talked to our colleagues from Geelong, and persuaded the company's head to deliver the equipment to the frontline city and connect it to the hospital. Blackouts, rocket attacks, lack of Internet and sometimes even mobile communication slowed down our work. At each stage of the project, we had to negotiate, prepare a contract, translate it into English, transfer funds, and so on... Ms. Natalia Alyokhina helped me with this, and I am very grateful to her," says Larysa Yevseyeva, secretary of the Union of Ukrainian Women in Zaporizhzhia.

Working together for the benefit of Ukrainian children has united Ukrainian women from two distant continents.

I bow to you, dear sisters from Australia, for your compassion, for your caring attitude to the problems of Ukraine, for your sacrificial help and for your sincere prayers in this difficult time.