Delivering food to hospitals
On Saturday morning, instead of my usual bread baking, I accompanied one of the volunteer drivers, Kirill, who delivers our bread rolls and fresh-cooked food to hospitals across the city.
Kharkiv is Ukraine's second city, after Kyiv, and so, of course, had numerous hospitals. It's difficult to provide an exact number now, due to past destruction, ongoing damage and other changes; however, a number of hospitals are operational, including those that have been restored after bomb damage.
Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF - Doctors Without Borders) reports that, as the war escalated in February 2022, many residents of Kharkiv region, including medical staff, fled to western Ukraine or left the country. Many people in rural villages and towns in the region were evacuated to the city. The loss of health care workers, coupled with the massive medical needs related to the war, soon pushed the health care system to the brink. The Hell's Kitchen Foundation stepped in to try to meet some of these needs, on day two of the full invasion, and it continues to do so, 365 days per year, making around 1,000 fresh-cooked meals (along with bread rolls) per day for hospitals and other institutions. These healthy, balanced meals are essential when you consider that only 14 hryvnias (26p/31 Euro cents/34 US cents) are allocated for feeding one patient in hospital, which is clearly insufficient to buy enough nutritional food for a person to make a good recovery.
For each of the 2 trips, all the buckets of food and bags of bread rolls were taken from the kitchen, up the stairs and loaded into Kirill's car...
First stop was the Neurological Institute - there are about 100 patients in this unit, although the hospital serves 5 other districts.
Second stop was Kharkiv Region Psychiatric Hospital. As MSF reports, many patients are struggling, not only with the loss of family members and neighbours, but also with the loss of the life they knew. The impact of the war on mental health is, and will, continue to be one of the main challenges for the health care system in Ukraine. However, fortunately, stigma surrounding mental health has decreased and mental health support is becoming normalised.
Just 15 bread rolls were delivered to this unit. Kirill explained that, during the week, regular cooked meals are provided as well. He was informed that there were 10 new patients so the ward nurse will contact Hell's Kitchen's manager, Liuda, to negotiate an increase in food provided.
Kirill noted that many of the city hospitals have been bombed, some of them more than once. As recently as 1 March, in the early hours, Russian forces struck a hospital in Kharkiv. The roof and wards were damaged, and four patients were injured. Reportedly, more than 50 patients had to be evacuated.
We made a delivery in the same psychiatric hospital complex, where the impact of shrapnel can clearly be seen in the wall.
The fourth delivery was to Number 25 City Clinical Hospital, which has been bombed several times. (I remembered visiting this hospital a few weeks ago, when driving a van with humanitarian aid.) We delivered buckets of food and bags containing 100 rolls through a hatch, beyond which you could see the workings of the kitchen, which seemed pretty basic but very clean, much like ours at Hell's Kitchen.
The next hospital stop was just for paperwork and the next was through a door on a main road - something to do with the military, Kirill said - no photos, of course.
We returned to Hell's Kitchen for a quick coffee break and reload of the car. Then we stopped at Kharkiv Regional Clinical Hospital, a large hospital that has been bombed twice. The amount of food we left seemed small - 20 bread rolls - but everything is carefully calculated by Liuda, according to need.The hospital has a large generator that was donated to keep electricity uninterrupted, e.g. when power is cut due to Russian attacks.
Next, we made another small food delivery to one of several accident and emergency hospitals in the city. It has an interesting back entrance, to avoid getting in the way of ambulances and staff - up a flight of very steep metal steps, which Kirill said are hazardous in winter!
Lastly, we made our biggest delivery, including 220 bread rolls, to the Number 4 Clinical Hospital of Emergency Aid, a large hospital serving several districts. It has also been bombed and has an entrance gate with 2 guards, who checked the car's contents. Kirill gave them each a bread roll, which he said he always does as the guards don't have time to go and buy food. The staff have a very practical way of transporting the food - by piling it up on a wheeled patient trolley.
These visits brought home the reality of the need for the food we provide, as well as a human face to the staff who receive it. When I see this label on the bag, I now know what it means (Number 4 hospital, Number 2 district, 220 rolls)!
The visits also illustrated the risks to hospital staff and their patients - I saw as many broken/boarded up windows and damaged buildings as elsewhere in the city.
Please see this wonderful video for an insight into the hospitals and how much the food delivered means to staff and patients. You can go into settings for English subtitles.
https://youtu.be/vgIt-iOICxA?si=VXD5TLxjoR8cZTEx
As a segue to these hospital visits, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, called for an end to the “horrific suffering” caused by attacks on civilians in Ukraine. Although President Trump has pushed for a ceasefire since returning to office in January, Turk said, “Casualty figures in the first three months of this year were 30% higher than the same period last year.” Attacks have notably intensified in Kharkiv, right up to the present. On 26 March, Russia launched a mass drone attack against Kharkiv (locals reported at least 15 explosions), hitting central districts of the city and injuring at least 13 people, including 3 children, boys aged 6 and 15, and a girl aged 12. Three days later, on Saturday night, we were walking home from a restaurant after saying goodbye to a volunteer, when we heard low-flying drones, then very loud explosions, close to the city centre. These Russian drone attacks killed two people and injured 25. A military hospital was among the buildings struck. For most of the early hours of this morning, Russia bombed Kharkiv for the second night in a row, injuring two people, sparking fires, and damaging a kindergarten and private houses.
Update on donations
We raised enough funds to buy a new drone base set, after one was destroyed, to help a drone unit get back up and running, quickly, which is greatly needed. Donations also paid for these Sky Zone goggles for the unit we are supporting.
Fabric for camouflage netting has been purchased.
A very generous donation came from someone with a Ukrainian male name, maybe from one of the Ukrainian community Facebook pages in England where my brother sends this blog to be published. Whoever you are, thank you very much. This donation went directly to support the ongoing running costs of Hell's Kitchen so we can continue the vital delivery of food to the city's hospitals.
To make a donation, please:
Open PayPal and, when asked for email, enter sunflower_house@hotmail.co.uk
These are the causes to which I regularly donate - you can specify where you would like your money to go, otherwise I will send it where I think the need is greatest:
Adults For Children supports families displaced by the war.
Hell's Kitchen - funding for daily, nutritious meals to hospitals and the kitchen's electricity costs.
Franklin, Hell's Kitchen foreign volunteer coordinator, supports local soldiers and medics.
Fabric for camouflage netting, ghillies and stretchers/seamstress costs
If you would like to donate to charities that support animals, Animal Rescue Kharkiv needs funds for vaccinating cats and dogs so they can be taken west into the EU.
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