400 severely ill children from Donbas received their medications. How to receive medical aid for children?
400 Donbas families, who are raising children with serious chronic diseases, received medications as part of "Medications for Children" program of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center. More than half of them have diabetes. According to requests, we provided children with the type of insulin they need in particular. 173 children were also provided with packs of anticonvulsants and anti-asthma medications they needed.
"This is the goal of our work: providing severely ill children with the medications they need. It is not just purchasing and issuance of a batch, it is following the requirements of each child and providing the suitable type of medication. All children have complex diagnoses, and the change of treatment regimens may lead to serious consequences", – Iryna Temerko, the Head of Targeted Assistance direction at Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center, comments.
There are still many calls coming on the Humanitarian Center's hotline – these are requests of families from non-government-controlled areas. The medications in local pharmacies are deficient and expensive for them; it takes some people a few weeks to find an opportunity to leave for government-controlled territory and pick us this medical aid.
A similar situation happened to the mother of two-year-old Kolia from Makiivka. The woman is raising her child alone. In early autumn, local doctors diagnosed the boy with asthma. "During the shelling we were constantly hiding in basement, almost the whole last summer. Against this background my son became allergic to almost everything: mould, dust, fluff. And four months ago he started choking badly. Doctors said that allergy turned into asthma and prescribed medications that I have no funds to buy. I am on maternity leave and have one more person to look after, that is my 90-year-old grandmother", – Natalya, the boy's mother, shared.
"Natalya couldn't pick up Kolia's medications from Artemivsk for a few weeks. She called back a few times and asked to hold them. She had no one to leave her child with and she couldn't afford the trip. And two days ago Natalya called and shared that she finally will be able to come: her acquaintances will drive her to the peaceful territory as their travel companion" – Iryna Temerko shares.
The medications are issued by the Humanitarian Center to the families with severely ill children under 18 living in non-government-controlled areas and peaceful territory of Donbas. They can be received only in the pharmacies of Artemivsk, Mariupol and Kramatorsk, Donetsk region. The applications are accepted via the Humanitarian Center's hotline: 0800 509 001. You can find more details on where and how to receive the medications here.
