Ukraine

Kyiv, Ukraine

On April 27, 2015 representatives of the Guardian Angels Ukraine (GAU) Project took part in the official opening of a rehabilitation centre providing psychological and physical treatment for Ukrainian military servicemen.  The centre, which is sponsored by Guardian Angels Ukraine, is located at the Irpin Military Hospital near Kyiv.

“In the wake of Russia’s massive military onslaught, Ukraine’s wounded soldiers have made great sacrifices to defend a European Ukraine and protect the democratic values that we share.  Today’s event represents a first step in our efforts to assist Ukraine as it confronts enormous challenges in the area of rehabilitation medicine.  We cannot ignore the urgent need to improve the rehab services at Ukraine’s network of military medical facilities,” said Lisa Shymko, Honorary Chair of the Guardian Angels Ukraine Project and President of the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women, who spoke on behalf of the Canadian partners of the project. 

Lesia Shymko, Honorary Chair GAU, Colonel  Dr. Vsevolod Stebliuk, Special Advisor for Medical Matters at Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence  and Lead Medical Coordinator of the GAU project, and Kalyna Kardash, GAU Canadian Project Coordinator

Guardian Angels Ukraine was launched in December 2014 as a project of the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women.  The project aims to provide rehabilitation treatment and medical support for injured Ukrainian soldiers.  In addition to sponsoring the rehabilitation centre at Irpin Military Hospital, the project works with Dr. Ruslan Dobrovolsky to subsidize rehab treatment for members of volunteer battalions at the Kyiv Professional Unions Hydrotherapy Sanatorium.

The launch of the rehabilitation centre at the Irpin Military Hospital began with a press briefing which was chaired by Colonel Dr. Vsevolod Stebliuk, Special Advisor for Medical Matters at Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence and Lead Medical Coordinator of the GAU project.  Speakers addressing the media included: Artur Derevyanko, Head of Ukraine’s State Service for War Veterans and Participants of the ATO; Andriy Huk, Deputy Director of the Romadanov Institute for Neurosurgery; Oleh Druz, Lead Psychologist of the Ministry of Health; and Olia Chuiko, Founder of the International Association for the Support of Ukraine.

After the briefing, members of the media were taken on a tour of the rehabilitation facilities where they were shown the physical therapy room, occupational therapy room, sensory and music therapy room, as well as a room utilizing the IREX interactive rehabilitation therapy system, acquired by the GAU project.  “This system is not found anywhere else in Eastern Europe,” Dr. Stebliuk said proudly, pointing towards the new IREX system being used by a recovering patient.

The Irpin Military Hospital can accommodate up to 80 rehab patients at a time.  The hospital itself is located in a serene, retreat-like setting, surrounded by woods.  The patient-soldiers are able to find quiet refuge and focus on getting back their physical and psychological health.  It was for this reason that volunteers chose this location for the establishment of the first psychological and physical rehabilitation centre, explained Colonel Dr. Vsevolod Stebliuk, who served as a volunteer on the Maidan during Ukraine’s “Revolution of Dignity.”  “The atmosphere here is conducive to a return to civilian life,” he said. 

Dr. Stebliuk, who also served in the Myrotvorets’ volunteer battalion, not only survived the Illovaysk massacre in August 2014, but also managed to save the lives of more than 70 Ukrainian servicemen.  After this harrowing experience, Stebliuk realized that Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers were in dire need of professional help from psychologists, physiotherapists, and practitioners of rehabilitative medicine in order to be able to return to normal civilian life. 

Spurred forward by his vision, Dr. Stebliuk and a team of medical professionals, volunteers, and different non-governmental organizations such as Guardian Angels Ukraine have worked together to create what is now considered a template from which other psychological and physical rehabilitation centres can be modeled off of. 

Moving forward, the GAU project is set to support the opening of additional rehab centres across Ukraine which are within the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence’s network of facilities, including in Vinnytsia and Lviv.  In light of Ukraine’s current overhaul of its education system, the GAU project “will be working closely with the Ukrainian government and academic institutions to establish physiotherapy programs and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) departments at Ukraine’s leading universities, through a Canada-Ukraine knowledge exchange program,” said Shymko.

Also representing the project from Canada were Kalyna Kardash, GAU’s Canadian Project Coordinator, and Bohdan Cherniawski from the League of Ukrainian Canadians, a military health care consultant.  Serhij Kuzan, Coordinator of the all-Ukrainian volunteer network Vilni Liudy (“Free People”), was also in attendance.  Speaking about GAU’s plans for the future, Kardash noted, “The project is exploring innovative approaches to psychological therapies for returning Ukrainian servicemen, modelled on outpatient programs for veterans carried out by North American NGOs.”

Donations to the Guardian Angels Ukraine Project can be made one of several ways: by cheque, payable to “Guardian Angels Ukraine” c/o League of Ukrainian Canadian Women, 2282 Bloor St. West, Suite 204, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6S 1N9; by direct deposit at any Buduchnist Credit Union to the Guardian Angels Ukraine Account #69026; or online on the GAU website http://www.lucw.ca/donate.html. 

With files from Deutsche Welle