We have been asked by many of our supporters if we are in a position to help the people of Ukraine, who are currently facing the most horrendous situation. Hospices were first set up in the Middle Ages to help pilgrims who had fallen sick on their journeys. Our mission is to support the development of hospice care and palliative care education in South-East Europe. Although we have not yet set up any direct services in Ukraine, we have a long standing relationship with some palliative care teams in the country through our training programmes and have welcomed many of them to our residential training centre in Brasov.
In view of the current circumstances, we wanted to highlight the following 5 ways we can help:
- We will make available one of the buildings at our Copaceni children’s centre in Romania on a temporary basis to house women and child refugees from Ukraine, in particular those who have medical needs (our services for children will continue in the other buildings)
- We will keep in touch with the palliative care teams that we know in Ukraine to find out their current needs, and where possible help them with medications, dressings etc, in addition to passing on any specific donations from the UK. We will admit any Ukrainian citizens needing palliative care to our hospice in Bucharest
- We will help provide psychological counselling for those affected by trauma through our teams in Romania and Moldova (our teams in Soroca and Ocnita are right on the border with Ukraine)
- We will help refugees with basic medicine and food and send them to their temporary accommodations via our hospice cars where we can. Many are crossing the border without transport and have nowhere to turn.
- We are collecting donations of both medical supplies and food in both countries and distributing them to refugees staying in the area.
We have set up a restricted account specifically for supporting Ukraine. Every penny* given specifically for Ukraine will be used for the purposes outlined above. Please feel free to share our appeal with anyone you know that might be looking for a way to help.
Thank you for your support.
Anna Perolls
CEO
Hospices of Hope
11a, High Street
Otford, Kent TN14 5PG
Tel: 01959 525110
Ukraine Appeal Donations: hospicesofhope.co.uk/appeal/help-for-ukraine