SOS for CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL WARDS
IN THE WAR ZONE
About the Project
SOS for children's hospital wards in the war zone
Campaign goal:
Donating self-heating, healthy and balanced food to hospital children’s wards - burn units, intensive care units, oncology units, hematology units, cardiology units, orthopedic units and to maternity units for pregnant and nursing mothers
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The campaign description:
The XXI century’s worse possible scenario is happening right now. There is a war on, just across the border. Making the older generations think about the nightmare from the 1940s, brings up feelings of anxiety and bitterness for many others. Each of us can feel the impact it is making, the helplessness of the world and Europe in the face of the tragedy that is currently taking place in Ukraine.
There is no one who could stop the evil threatening our neighbors. It has been a year – a year of suffering, senseless deaths, a year of havoc and destruction.
Right in the center of this unimaginable nightmare are also innocent children. As the weakest and most delicate members of any society in times of armed conflict, they are the most vulnerable group of people affected by violence, poverty, disease and lack of medical care.
Therefore, the need to provide assistance to children affected by war is indisputable and important not only from a moral point of view. It is even our duty, imposed on us by a sense of responsibility, empathy and humanitarianism.
The current situation in Ukraine is extremely difficult. Hospitalization under war conditions, operations performed during 'the rain of falling bombs', it is no longer a medical service, but a heroic struggle and immense challenge. Lack of medical equipment, drugs, water, a huge number of casualties, this is the reality that practically none of us have any idea about today.
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Why this fundraiser is so important?
Every day, small patients - children - are brought to hospitals that are under constant attack in areas affected by ongoing conflicts. Sadly, many of them will pass away, often without the opportunity to die in the arms of their parents. Other children will be admitted to hospital with horrific injuries, such as gunshot wounds, orthopedic injuries, terrible burns from detonated explosive devices or from being in close proximity to artillery shell explosions, as well as children with multiple injuries who are extracted daily from the ruins of bombed and collapsed houses and apartment buildings. This is the reality of today, which completely shatters any notion of childhood.
We cannot overlook or forget the problems of children who already spent most of their lives in oncology, hematology, cardiology, or orthopedics wards even before the war. We cannot forget about children in wheelchairs or young patients permanently confined to their beds. They are still there. None of us can even imagine a small fraction of what they feel every day.
At the moment when we finish our day complaining and having another cup of coffee, there is a fight for life and survival going on over there.
We must also not forget about maternity wards and breastfeeding mothers with their newborns, sympathizing with them for the conditions in which they have to cope with childbirth, as well as pregnant women who require special care.
hese makeshift hospital wards are created by the heroes we cannot see - brave doctors, nurses, and ward attendants - people who could leave their fatally dangerous country, but have chosen to stay and with pride, risking their lives, fight for the lives and health of not only their youngest patients.
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What are we dealing with?
Each of us knows the feeling of "hunger pangs". We're driving, walking, sitting with friends and suddenly we feel the so-called "stomach growling". The unsatisfied hunger causes us to feel discomfort, stomach pain, drowsiness, weakness, and accompanying symptoms of lack of focus. As soon as we feel such a stimulus, we head to ubiquitous shops, drive-thru windows, or restaurants.
Hunger is one of the greatest challenges that hospital managers in areas affected by ongoing wars, such as Kharkiv, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Myrnograd, Pokrovsk, Kryvyi Rih, Kherson, and Odesa, must face.
Hospitals are desperately seeking any often dangerous solutions to provide meals for their patients, including children. Searching for food on their own in conditions of armed conflict, people eat not what they should, but what they find, which in turn leads to consuming low-quality, old, or contaminated food.
As a result, sick and severely injured children are exposed to additional digestive disorders, as well as nutritional deficiencies caused by the lack of a proper diet specific to their type of injury or illness. The poor calorie value of meals also has a negative impact on chronic diseases and hinders the proper recovery process necessary after injuries, significantly delaying the return to health for young patients.
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We need to lend a helping hand once again!
Poles rose to the occasion. We have repeatedly passed the test of humanity. Each of us should be proud to live in such an empathetic society. We are the salt of the earth and a role model to follow.
Today we face yet another challenge. Mariupol, Donbas, Zaporizhia, Melitopol are occupied or bombed hospitals that have no chance of rescue. These are military facilities converted into hospitals aimed at providing assistance to wounded Russian soldiers. These are hospitals where many people in need of help, including children, have been staying, and after the cities were occupied, they were forcibly "evacuated" to Russia by Russian forces.
The hospitals located in the combat zones are still maintaining their status despite being in shelled areas in the center of the front line. These hospitals are located in Kharkiv, Kherson, and Odesa. Due to the injuries sustained, it is impossible to evacuate the children from these wards.
In Kharkiv, there are children brought from the front lines of the occupied territories. The patients suffer from extensive burns, and many of them are in critical condition and require intensive care. The military and emergency services transport dozens, if not hundreds, of people there every day. Children with various injuries, nursing mothers, and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable groups that are at risk of complications. It is extremely important to provide them with a properly balanced diet rich in nutrients, including protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals.
That is precisely these groups that should receive meals at appropriate frequencies and in properly selected doses, in order to satisfy their daily calorie and nutrient requirements.
Unfortunately, providing such meals during an ongoing war is a timeless challenge. Access to food is limited, and the lack of financial resources and the ability to make ordinary purchases effectively eliminate the simplicity of this task.
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Close your eyes and look!
Imagine a hospital where power supply is mostly replaced by a roaring generator, sustaining the essential medical equipment, with frequent power outages, hundreds of injured patients, pain caused by lack of medications and limited staff and personnel, fatigue mixed with ubiquitous fear. The feeling of constant cold due to the lack of gas, holes in the walls, lack of windows, heating the rooms with coal stoves. Frequent water shortages.
Yes, that's a hospital where doctors are struggling to save lives and health. The kitchen? If there is one, it has long since ceased to function, and the refrigerator, which used to store food, is now used as a morgue. In this landscape of ubiquitous death, the worst of human feelings also emerges, which we must satisfy every day regardless of the circumstances.
This feeling is hunger, and it, combined with fear, pain, and other illnesses and injuries, is a hundred times more pronounced than any feeling we know. Today, in the 21st century, while we go to sleep well-fed, hundreds of people in Ukraine share the last stale crust of bread...
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Together we can change the reality - how we can do it?
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Specialized dieticians from the Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Clinical Hospital named after Wiktor Dega, which is part of the Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences in Poznan, collaborated with professors from intensive care units (ICU), burn units, cardiology, orthopedics, oncology, hematology, and obstetrics, as well as diabetes specialists who work in hospitalization, to jointly develop five balanced and targeted diets for pediatric and obstetric wards,
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The prepared recipes are sent for production to a Polish company, which takes care of producing the highest quality products,
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Each meal containing a balanced diet is placed in a self-heating can.
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The meals are delivered to hospitals located in areas adjacent to the front line, such as Kharkiv, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Myrnograd, Pokrovsk, Kryvyi Rih, Kherson, and Odessa,
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The self-heating cans make it possible to prepare a hot, balanced meal that is important for children's diet without the need for water, electricity, or gas, and it only takes a few minutes.
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So little for so much:
One balanced meal is 400 grams of high-quality diet. It's 400 grams of life and the satisfaction of hunger.
We have prepared three types of diets for children's hospitals in collaboration with specialists:
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General high-protein diet - for children with general injuries caused by, among others, war actions (post-operative diet), 1st and 2nd degree burns, orthopedic injuries, and general illnesses,
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Light digestive diet - for children with oncological, hematological, and cardiac disorders, for breastfeeding mothers and pregnant women, as well as for children with 3rd degree burns,
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Special children's diet - for intensive care units (ICU).
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Price of Life:
The cost of one self-heating, balanced diet is the price of a standard meal and ranges from 5,60 to 6,25 Eur depending on the recipe used in the can.
One carton contains 10 units, and one pallet holds 770 cans.
For example, the cost of one pallet of meals in the general diet is 4.312 EUR.
One TIR truck can hold 24 pallets. Filling one TIR with meals in the general diet costs 107.800 EUR.
24 pallets provide a total of 18,480 meals, and assuming 3 daily nutrition requirements for 100 hungry children, this will ensure comprehensive nutrition for them for 61 days until the next transport.
