Fribourg/Köln/Lviv. In the second year of war, the Ukrainian population must continue to be supported with diverse humanitarian aid, Malteser International demands. The aid organization will expand programs for psychosocial support and deliver relief supplies, especially to the east of the country.
"Children all over the country are suffering from the war. Their psyche is changing. They can no longer think freely in a childlike way," notes Pavlo Titko, Head of Malteser Ukraine. The aid organization has been offering psychosocial support programs in Ukraine since 2014. Because school attendance is not possible or only possible to a limited extent throughout the country, children and young people learn much less and less effectively. Continuous air alarms frighten the children. Social workers and psychologists provide age-appropriate services to help children overcome difficult situations and experiences. Recreational activities are also part of the program.
Danger to life for rescuers
Distributing generators, power banks, blankets, sleeping bags, hygiene items and food in villages and towns directly affected by shelling also means the highest risk to the lives of aid workers. "Something can happen with every transport to the war zones," Titko says. “But the will to support the particularly affected population is very strong throughout the country,” he says.
Some of these relief materials also came from Switzerland. Since the beginning of the war, the Fribourg-based Malteser Stiftung Aide & Assistance (One of the Order of Malta relief organizations worldwide) has sent 38 trucks with relief supplies from Switzerland to Ukraine or neighboring countries to care for people fleeing, sick and living near the front lines. During the same period, 8,700 tons of relief supplies were delivered from Germany.
Logistics hubs in Germany, Switzerland (Embrach), Poland and Ukraine ensured reliable temporary storage and delivery of the relief supplies. National Maltese associations in twelve European countries are coordinating their assistance to Ukraine. "We support the Ukrainian Malteser and the Ukrainian population. There is an unbroken solidarity of the European population with Ukraine," says the President of Malteser International Europe, Douglas Graf Saurma-Jeltsch.
High voluntary commitment
In Switzerland, dozens of Malteser volunteers are regularly involved in helping to load used but still well-preserved hospital and nursing materials from hospitals and homes for the elderly onto articulated lorries, which then travel to the crisis region. In this way, an ad hoc hospital in Cibórz, Poland, which has a special focus on refugees traumatized by the war, was equipped with over 50 hospital beds and other materials.
"Our help continues undiminished also in the now dawning second year of war" explains Alessandro Marangoni, President of the Malteser Foundation Aide & Assistance.
Attention editors:
Malteser International will gladly arrange interview partners for you from Ukraine or Germany. Mediation: Katharina.Kiecol@malteser-international.org, Tel. +49(0)221 / 9822-7181.
Photos for download: click here
Alessandro Marangoni, President of the Malteser Stiftung Aide & Assistance, is available for interviews and sound bites for all aid transports from Switzerland.
Contact: +41 79 752 43 94, president@aide-assistance.ch, www.aide-assistance.ch
People in Ukraine continue to rely on donations:
Malteser Stiftung Aide & Assistance, 1701 Fribourg
Vermerk: Ukraine-Hilfe
Raiffeisenbank Sensetal
IBAN-Nr.: CH23 8080 8002 1342 9990 5
SWIFT/BIC: RAIFCH 22905
Photo: Psychosocial care in Western Ukraine Since mid-November, three mobile teams have been working in and around Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Beregova in Western Ukraine, providing psychosocial care to displaced children and adolescents. The project is supported by Malteser International and Johanniter International Assistance.
(c) Malteser International