Hospitals and Food
Recently, Ed, foreign volunteer coordinator, and I accompanied Liuda and a major Hell's Kitchen donor on visits to some of the hospitals where we deliver cooked food and bread. In Ukraine, hospitals (and schools) are generally known by a number. The first hospital we visited was Number 25 Hospital, a large emergency treatment hospital that receives our biggest delivery of food, usually about 240 meals and rolls per day. We had a frank and revealing discussion with a passionate and humorous young surgeon called Ivan, who, he said, was only pulled in to talk to us because he speaks good English! He explained that, because of the low level of government funding (as a result of the war effort), the hospital has to cut corners to ensure that patients' health and treatment comes first; hospital decor - and food - come second. We visited two wards where wounded soldiers were lying in beds, very close together - the wards were clean, but cramped and basic. Each patient is allocated onl...
