CUF / NP-UN
On the eve of the 1st anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Victor Hetmanczuk, Chair of the Board of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF), Oksana Kuzyshyn, COO, CUF, and Alexandra Chyczij, the National President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), held a press conference in Toronto reporting on the $52 million raised through the CUF-UCC joint Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal and the $26 million already deployed in the essential humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
They were joined by Yulia Kovaliv, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Canada, who expressed her deep gratitude for the help and support of Ukrainian people provided by Canadians over the last year, and also, by Rahul Singh, the Executive Director of GlobalMedic, one of CUF’s partners in delivering food and hygiene kits to Ukraine.
“Ukrainians are severely affected by Russian aggression. Russia has destroyed almost 50% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and most Ukrainians do not have access to basics, such as electricity, water, and heat. We are very grateful to CUF and UCC for delivering the generators with light masts for our teams of electricians, who can now efficiently repair the grid and restore the electricity, as well as the generators for hospitals and veterans’ families. More than 45,000 residential areas have been destroyed in Ukraine, with hundreds of thousands of people unable to return to their homes. CUF-UCC help set up temporary shelters by supplying the necessities, beds and mattresses, food and medical supplies, as well as sponsoring psychological support programs for Ukrainians. On behalf of the Ukrainian people, I want to thank you for your support and ask you to continue standing with Ukraine until our common victory”, said Kovaliv.
“This ugly war in Ukraine has displaced over 16 million people. Brutal attacks on civilian infrastructure have damaged electrical grids and knocked out water purification facilities. One in three households are food insecure. People are hungry and need clean water. I am proud of our partnership with CUF. They have rallied the community to raise awareness and funds to help vulnerable families in need. With their support we have reached families in desperate need with life-saving humanitarian assistance. This war rages on and it is getting uglier. We must redouble our efforts to keep helping families in need,” noted Singh.
The Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal is a joint effort of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC). For over a year, the two organizations have been working together to efficiently and cost-effectively deliver crucial humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians suffering in the brutal and unprovoked war.
“The Ukrainian Canadian community has been working non-stop to support our sisters and brothers in Ukraine in their heroic defence of their homeland from Russia`s genocidal war of aggression. Our community is immensely grateful to all Canadians for their steadfast, generous support of the Ukrainian people in their time of need.” said Chyczij.
“This year, more than ever, we are grateful to those who founded Canada-Ukraine Foundation in 1995, and to all those who have built its strong foundation, nurtured the relations both, here, in Canada, and in Ukraine, and kept the organization effective and efficient, so that when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th – we were there within a few days with the first tranche of humanitarian aid. Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal became the fund of choice to all across Canada, who wanted to support the humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine.” added Hetmanczuk.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on February 24th, 2022 – the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal has raised over $52 million from 72,000 donors across Canada.
The primary focus of the humanitarian relief efforts has been in the area of food security, medical care, and emergency shelter for displaced persons in Ukraine and in the neighboring countries.
Since February 2022, the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal has delivered:
• 300,000 boxes of food providing meals to 850,000 people in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania
• 53 Metric Tons of medicines reaching 790,500 patients
• 161 generators for hospitals, surviving families of Ukrainian armed forces personnel killed in action, and in support of Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy
• 2,000 stoves for cooking and heating homes in recently liberated areas
• 2,000 wooden beds, mattresses, duvets, pillows and bedding for the displaced persons
• 1,000 sets of firefighting gear, 10,000 gloves specialized for the first responders
• $1.2M in psychological assistance for civilians
• 2 surgical missions who operated on 44 patients with severe craniofacial injuries, totalling 106 procedures
• 20 Vacuum-Assisted Closure (VAC) machines for wound infection treatment in hospitals in Western Ukraine plus consumables
• 11 Toyota ambulances for Ukraine’s Ministry of Health
• 3 Humanitarian Demining Robots
• 1,000 pallets of cleaning supplies to displaced persons
• 330 pallets of PPE to hospitals
According to UNICEF estimates, by the end of 2022, a total of 17.7 million people in Ukraine were in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, including 3.4 million children. Currently, 5.9 million internally displaced persons are registered in Ukraine.
While sourcing food and materials for distribution, CUF and its partners focus on the culturally appropriate products which Ukrainians are used to. As Rahul Singh said, “I’ve never shipped as much buckwheat before in my life.”
CUF also strives to support the Ukrainian economy by buying domestic products – the 2,000 stoves and 2,000 beds, which the Foundation distributed to the displaced, were made locally.
Singh provided some examples of GlobalMedic’s CUF-sponsored projects in Ukraine. GlobalMedic, which, since 1998, has provided humanitarian help in 81 countries, has worked in Ukraine, in cooperation with CUF, since 2014. The organization has hubs in several Ukrainian regions: Volyn, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson. From those hubs, the organization’s teams go to work across other regions and all along the frontlines.
Singh demonstrated a hygiene kit, consisting of two containers, which, thanks to its simple-to-use but effective filter will satisfy a family’s need for clean water for about a year. The kit also contains cleaning and washing supplies. Right now, GlobalMedic is delivering 15 thousand of those kits. To date, GlobalMedic has delivered aid to over 275 thousand beneficiaries in Ukraine.
Rahul Singh demonstrates GlobalMedic’s hygiene kits distributed in Ukraine
At the press conference, Victor Hetmanczuk outlined some directions for CUF’s future work in Ukraine. Apart from continuing its humanitarian missions in Ukraine, the Foundation plans to support veterans’ health and mental rehabilitation programs and, in particular, support Ukraine’s team at the next Invictus Games for veterans to be held in Dusseldorf (Germany) in September.
Russian aggression has damaged over 2,700 education institutions and completely destroyed 440 institutions across several Ukrainian regions. CUF plans to help Ukraine rebuild its primary schools and orphanages.
Among CUF’s main priorities is continuing its Canada Ukraine Surgical Aid Program as the need in the Western-standard surgeries for severely injured Ukrainians will persist for a long time.
Canada-Ukraine Foundation will need the support of donors for a long time to continue providing Ukraine with much-needed support. As Victor Hetmanczuk put it during the press conference: “People tell me it’s a marathon. And I say ‘sorry, folks, we’re in the triathlon.’ We’re in it for the long haul.”
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