19 October 2023
The Luxembourg Red Cross, which has been present in Ukraine for more than 35 years, continues to support victims of the armed conflict in many parts of the country, including the frontline oblasts of Dnipro and Donetsk.
One of its aims is to promote access to quality healthcare for people living in or near the conflict zone by renovating hospitals and carrying out emergency repairs to ensure that care can continue. For example, three wards at Nikopol Hospital and Tsarychanka Central Hospital were renovated in September, with anti-ballistic windows. The supply of medical equipment such as a colposcope, wheelchairs, orthopaedic mattresses and defibrillators to health establishments in Bilozersk, Novogorodivka and Bakhmut (the latter having been relocated to Dnipro for security reasons) means that the number of consultations can now be kept up.
Support for the population living near the front line also includes the distribution of food and non-food items such as hygiene kits, which benefited 1,100 people this summer in towns such as Kramatorsk and Mariinka. To prepare for a harsh winter, the Luxembourg Red Cross is currently providing auxiliary heating systems, sleeping bags and blankets, and repairing windows and boilers in collective centres for internally displaced people, whose numbers have increased following the destruction of the Kherson dam in June.
In Dnipro and Donetsk, the Luxembourg Red Cross teams are working closely with the local branches of the Ukrainian Red Cross, strengthening their organisational development for the distribution of non-food items and psychosocial support for displaced people.
All these activities in the Dnipro and Donetsk regions are made possible thanks to funding from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs amounting to 1 million euros, as well as the support of generous donors from the Grand Duchy.
