Around 4,500 Ukrainians will be able to receive medical treatment thanks to the 31 kits of health products (1.3 tonnes) received in mid-October by the Motanka organisation in Ukraine. This latest donation from the Tulipe association, via The Heart Fund, will enable the NGO to help isolated populations in villages in the Kharkiv and Donbass regions.
“These health products will be distributed during a tour by our medical teams in November and December in the frontline regions of Karkhiv, Kherson and the Donbass”, explains Gaëlle Girbes, French photojournalist and founder of Motanka. At the start of the year, the organisation received support from the American NGO Direct Relief to strengthen its teams and resources on the ground. As Direct Relief explains on its website, the aim of this financial support is to : ” enable Motanka to purchase medical and personal care products, surgical equipment and medicines for doctors and surgeons on the front line”.
The opening of this centre in Mykolaiev from January to mid-May 2023 will have enabled several distribution-consultations to be carried out with Tulipe’s support. The aim was to enable the population to regain access to their treatment, which had been interrupted by the serious situation in Mykolaiev (Photo ©Virginie Nguyen Hoang)
An armoured mobile clinic to treat people on the front line
Motanka, which was set up in 2019 to give a decent place to live again to the victims of the conflict that had already been going on for 8 years in the Donbass, also supports Ukrainian NGOs in the field by supplying them with Tulipe medical kits. “The NGO Base UA is one of our beneficiary associations in Ukraine. They are equipped with an armoured mobile clinic that enables them to approach and treat people on the front line in the Donbass region”, explains Gaëlle Girbes. Every weekend, the Base UA team travels to these areas and carries out consultations and examinations on the spot, while providing the appropriate medicines. On board, they also have equipment for carrying out ultrasound scans, as well as online consultations with specialist doctors, made possible by a Starlink connection system.
Motanka’s new local beneficiary: the BASE UA organisation, which is equipped with an armoured mobile clinic enabling it to provide treatment in villages close to the front line in the Donbass. They received 7 kits of Tulipe health products (Photos ©Gaelle Girbes)
Tortured for providing aid to Ukrainian soldiers
Another organisation supported by Motanka is SEMA, founded by Irina Dovgan. Irina Dovgan, who worked as a beautician in the small town in the occupied Donbass region, was arrested by the separatist “Vostok” militia for providing material aid to Ukrainian soldiers. Beaten and tortured, she was paraded in public by the militia. She miraculously survived thanks to a New York Times reporter, Mauricio Lima, who took a photo of her being molested by the pro-Russian inhabitants of Donetsk. The photo went around the world and the militiamen were forced to release Irina Dovgan. Five years after this terrible episode, in 2019, she took over as head of the Ukrainian branch of Sema Network. Sema, which means “to speak out” in Swahili, is a global network of victims and survivors. The Network aims to end sexual violence in war and currently represents survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in 26 countries, from Africa and South America to the Middle East and Europe.
Donation of a first kit of Tulipe health products
The network’s branch in Ukraine provides free psychological and social support to women who have been victims of assault, physical abuse or torture by Russian and pro-Russian forces, as well as medical assistance, to which Motanka is contributing with, for example, the donation of an initial kit of Tulipe health products, as the Ukrainian health system does not pay for treatment. ” These women suffer from chronic illnesses and high blood pressure due to stress”, Gaëlle Girbes points out. The collective is also fighting to ensure that these victims of acts of torture and barbarism in a war context obtain a status that is still non-existent in Ukrainian law.
(Photo ©Virginie Nguyen Hoang)
“A situation made worse by winter
The whole of the Ukrainian population is preparing to face a second winter in a war situation, with needs specific to this period, as the founder of the Motanka organisation describes it: “With this period comes the return of flu infections, and the challenge is to be able to help the people living in the territories located on the front line. For those living in the occupied territories reclaimed by the Ukrainian army, we realise that there are major vitamin deficiencies. We are also finding that there are more and more respiratory infections due to fungus among people living in places that have become highly unhealthy. A situation made worse by winter”.
More information on the Motanka website
