We have been asked by many of our supporters if we are in a position to help the people of Ukraine, who are currently facing the most horrendous situation.
Hospices were first set up in the Middle Ages to help pilgrims who had fallen sick on their journeys. Our mission is to support the development of hospice care and palliative care education in South East Europe.
Although we have not yet set up any direct services in Ukraine, we have a long standing relationship with some palliative care teams in the country through our training programmes and have welcomed many of them to our residential training centre in Brasov.
Hospices of Hope’s mission is:
to promote and provide care for persons in Central and Eastern Europe suffering from advanced cancer and other life-threatening illnesses, train medical staff engaged in the care of such persons and relieve persons in Central and Eastern Europe suffering from conditions of severe of prolonged shock or depression resulting from bereavement
(taken from our articles of association)
When the war started, it therefore felt very appropriate to offer our support to Ukraine in the following ways:
- We have made available one of the buildings at our Copaceni children’s centre in Romania on a temporary basis to house women and child refugees from Ukraine, in particular those who have medical needs (services for our Romanian child patients will continue in the other buildings on the same site)
- We are in regular touch with the palliative care teams that we know in Ukraine (especially with the Palliative Care Regional Centre in Ivano-Franvisk, where we have been involved in training their staff) to find out their current needs, and where possible to help them with medications, dressings etc. We have admitted any Ukrainian citizens needing palliative care to our hospice in Bucharest on a free of charge basis, and will continue to do so
- We are helping to provide psychological counselling for those affected by trauma through our mobile palliative care teams in Romania and Moldova (our teams in Soroca and Ocnita are right on the border with Ukraine)
- We are helping refugees with basic medicine and food and sending them to their temporary accommodations, using our wheel-chair assisted hospice vehicles when the need arises. Many are crossing the border without transport and have nowhere to turn.
- We are collecting donations of both medical supplies and food in both countries and distributing them to refugees staying in the area.
- We are maintaining our existing programmes which will be vital in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine.
We have set up a restricted account specifically for supporting Ukraine on our website www.hospicesofhope.co.uk
Thank you for your support.
Graham Perolls
Founder & Development Director Hospices of Hope
President Hospice Casa Sperantei (Romania) and BELhospice (Serbia)
Hospices of Hope
A: 11 High Street, Otford, Kent, TN14 5PG | T: 01959 525110 | E: graham@hospicesofhope.co.uk
Making every day count for terminally ill children and adults in Romania and surrounding countries
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