March 20, 2022
NATAN has been on the Poland-Ukraine border, aiding Ukrainian refugees since the beginning of this month, immediately after the invasion of their country. NATAN’s Team 1 completed their rotation last week and were replaced by Team 2: 5 doctors: including MDs from Israel and the USA, 2 Registered Nurses, 2 social workers and a logistics manager (Team Leader). Most of the team members speak Russian and/or Ukrainian, making it easy to communicate and help the refugees without mediation by others.
Healing bodies and souls: Left: NATAN Social Worker Olla Stepchenko comforts a refugee. Right: Dr. Ronny Edelshtein and RN Elena Donchik treat an arriving refugee at the first aid clinic.
Moving Moments of Song
At the refugee center in Przemysl, Poland, Ukrainian refugee, Sveta, sings Ukrainian songs. One song is “Dearest Mother”, a song of longing for mother and motherland. The second song is in praise of Jerusalem. Sveta is singing to NATAN volunteers from Israel who were born and raised in Ukraine. NATAN Ukraine Refugee Relief Operation – March 2022 Hear more of Sveta’s music, here: https://natanrelief.org/operations/ukraine-refugee-relief-2022
Partnerships and Collaboration
Partnerships – We couldn’t do it without you: Left: NATAN Team Leader Mike Attinson takes visiting UJA delegation of Rabbis to the Poland-Ukraine, to learn about the situation at close-hand. Right: The UJA delegation brought bags packed with life-saving medicines and medical supplies.
Partnerships – Working with Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital – NATAN teams together with doctors from Hadassah Hospital, working together to provide medical aid to the refugees.
Midnight Reunion
Dr. Iryna Beylin works as a pediatrician in Israel, having immigrated from Ukraine years ago. Last week Dr. Beylin joined a delegation from NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief, now deployed in Przemysl, Poland. Dr. Beylin had been trying for days to get her family out of Mykolayiv, a city under constant shelling. They managed to escape and arrived at Przemysl train station at midnight. The arriving family: Iryna’s parents, aged 75, her sister and two nephews, ages 2 and 4, escaped the city of Mykolayiv, now under attack by advancing Russian forces. The sister’s husband stayed behind in Mykolayiv.
Read more here: https://natanrelief.org/blog/midnightreunion
Purim in Poland – Spreading Smiles
While our teams continue to provide medical aid and trauma intervention to arriving refugees, they continue to make life for the children as pleasant as possible. Working with our partners from Hashomer Hatzair, NATAN team held a Purim party yesterday for the children and their families. A much-needed dose of fun, with music, dance, treats and games. A chance to forget – if only for a few moments – the trauma they have been through. The NGO, JRoots Journeys came by to deliver medicine and some food for the soul: Along with a bag of donated medical supplies, JRoots brought trays of baked hamantaschen pastries which our team happily distributed to the refugees in the center.
Team 2 departs for Poland. Left to Right: Dr. Dan Sela, Dr. Iryna Beylin, MSW Olla Stepchenko, RN Liana Sholomovich, MSW Svetlana Buza, Dr. Ronny Edelshtein, RN Elena Donchik. Back row center: NATAN Founder Itzik Aharoni, seeing the team off at Ben Gurion Airport. Missing from photo: Team Leader, Mike Attinson, who flew out a day before to organize logistics in advance of Team 2’s arrival.
NATAN medical team members: RN Liana Sholomovich, MD Iryna Beylin and MD Dan Sela, with roses given to them by Polish volunteers in appreciation of the team’s aid to Ukrainian refugees in Przemysl, Poland.