On 19 June 2023, a lorry chartered by the French association Safe for the Ukrainian NGO Comité d’Aide Médicale arrived in Ukraine carrying 4.9 tonnes of health products donated by the Tulipe association and its member health companies. This is the first donation to this Ukrainian NGO, founded in 2000 by a Franco-Ukrainian team. We take a look at the situation with Jacques Duplessy, Safe’s head of mission for Ukraine and co-founder of the Comité d’Aide Médicale.
“This first donation from the Tulipe association is leaving with the137th lorry we have chartered since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. It is carrying 40 Tulipe canteens and 491 boxes of health products spread over 20 pallets”, explains Jacques Duplessy, Safe’s project manager and French correspondent for the NGO Comité d’Aide Médicale, based in Uzhgorod in Transcarpathia in western Ukraine. One of the Comité d’Aide Médicale Ukraine’s current priorities is to take action following the explosion of the Kakhovka dam. The explosion caused a humanitarian, economic and ecological disaster, with 37 towns flooded, 16,000 people evacuated, access to drinking water cut off for almost a million people and crops destroyed.
Arrival of the Tulipe trunks in Ukraine on 19 June 2023 (Photo Comité d’Aide Médicale Ukraine – Safe)
Operations carried out in close collaboration with the Ukrainian authorities
The Comité d’Aide Médicale Ukraine has taken action to limit the spread of epidemics by distributing flexible tanks, pumps and water purification tablets. The Comité d’Aide Médicale Ukraine is also ensuring access to electricity for health services by distributing generators and rechargeable batteries. The NGO, which is working closely with the Ukrainian authorities, is also working to equip the emergency services by mobilising to transport rigid and inflatable boats for evacuation purposes, as well as basic necessities. “We are carrying out a number of humanitarian actions in Transcarpathia, housing displaced people. We are also providing support to hospitals receiving injured people who are undergoing rehabilitation. At the same time, our emergency operations involve supplying hospitals throughout the country. At the moment, we are concentrating particularly on the Zaporijia, Dnipro and Kharkiv areas, where large numbers of wounded are arriving from the front”, explains Jacques Duplessy.
Donations of ambulances in Ukraine are a great help in transporting the sick and war-wounded to the country’s hospitals (photo: Comité d’Aide Médicale Ukraine – Safe)
“Huge need for consumables and medicines
The Comité d’Aide Médicale Ukraine’s current need for healthcare products is for medical equipment (respirators, monitors and scopes), as many hospitals are reopening beds throughout the country. Another type of need is first aid equipment, such as defibrillators, monitors and transport respirators, etc . “We also have requests for interventional radiology. Finally, there is a huge need for consumables and medicines,” adds Jacques Duplessy. This type of need is quite specific, linked to the various extreme emergencies currently affecting Ukraine. The donation of 4.9 tonnes of health products by the Tulipe association is a response to “major ongoing needs from Ukrainian hospitals”, concludes the NGO’s Ukraine project manager.
The need for health products and equipment in Ukraine is greater than ever, explains an NGO official (photo: Comité d’Aide Médicale Ukraine – Safe).
Focus on the Comité d’Aide Médicale Ukraine and its partners
This focus is a text from Safe and the Comité d’Aide Médicale Ukraine |
Contacts :
- Medical Aid Committee (Ukraine): Nataliya Kabatsiy, Director, camzua@gmail.com, www.cam-z.org/en, (+380) 50 571 07 18, (French, English, German). Liaison office in France: comiteaidemedicalefr@gmail.com
- SAFE (France): Catherine Duplessy, Director of the Safe association, catherine.duplessy@safe.asso.fr, www.safe.asso.fr, (+33) 6 84 81 07 77
