Ukraine Refugee Relief Operation 2022

NATAN medical and trauma care teams on the ground at the Poland-Ukraine border.

Feb. 2023: It has now been one year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As of today there are an estimated 6 million internally displaced people in Ukraine. Nearly 8 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded in neighboring countries and across Europe. Approximately 17.6 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023.

From the initial Russian invasion and throughout 2022, NATAN provided medical and psychological aid to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. March 1: NATAN’s Team 1 flew to the Poland-Ukraine border. NATAN was chosen by the Polish Red Cross to manage the medical clinic at an abandoned Tesco shopping mall which was repurposed and renamed: Przemysl Humanitarian Aid Center. This location became one of the largest refugee transit centers in Poland in 2022. From March through the end of August, NATAN took charge of 24/7 staffing, sharing shifts with partner organizations.  NATAN provided both primary medical care and psychosocial/trauma intervention. In all 15 delegations of NATAN volunteers participated: 54 social workers, 41 doctors, 35 nurses, and 16 logistics experts from Israel and abroad - 200 professionals in all. More than 30,000 refugees received direct care, while many others benefited from our support. NATAN also trained Ukrainian frontline caregivers and ran a summer camp for Ukrainian children in July-August. NATAN received official recognition from the Polish Red Cross and local authorities for its swift, consistent and professional management of refugee needs in Przemysl.

NOTE: As with every NATAN relief operation, we take pains to ensure the privacy of all individuals. For that reason, you will not see patients’ faces in photos of our field clinics. You will notice that our doctors, nurses, social workers meet patients and clients one-to-one or in small family groups, behind screens or partitions wherever possible. Protecting human dignity is one of our organization’s core principles.

 The Ukraine Refugee Crisis

The Ukraine Operation in Numbers

Ukraine Refugee Relief Operation: March - August, 2022

Since the beginning of the operation, NATAN has deployed 15 teams of volunteers including: 41 MDs, 54 Social Workers, 35 nurses, 3 Medical clowns, 16 logistics managers, and 1 pharmacist. A total of 188 professionals.

In the 24/7 medical clinic, during NATAN shifts, approximately 20,000 patients received medical treatment since the beginning of the operation. Average number of patients seen per day: 120. ( These figures include only the patients met and registered, by the NATAN teams). We have no precise count of the thousands of mothers and children met by NATAN’s social workers.

Some of the initiatives:

  • The creation and operation of the secured playground for children and their mothers

  • Instruction and guidance of Polish volunteers and the creation of a Women’s Care Corner

  • Medical Help (MDs) to the Rescuers Without Borders (SSF) organization on the Medyka Border.

  • Psychosocial guidance to Cadena in their Children’s Center (Korczowa transit center)

  • Operation of a second medical clinic on the border for one week (at request of the Polish Red Cross)

  • Creation of a Youth Center where refugee teens were encouraged to volunteer, take ownership and manage the area

  • Support to our local partner Folkowisko Association, by providing them an ambulance and bullet-proof vests to operate inside Ukraine, purchasing baby formula and basic food supplies which were transported inside Ukraine

Przemysl Humanitarian Aid Center

Read the story of Tasha Karliuka

I could not stay on the sidelines

I could not stay on the sidelines •

NATAN’s Refugee Relief Operation - Background

The refugee relief operation is expected to continue for three months, with volunteers rotating in and out of the country every few weeks. Since the invasion, NATAN has been flooded with requests from people all over the world who want to volunteer. Certified professionals in the fields of medicine and psycho-social aid are interviewed and, if found suitable, allocated to one of the teams which will be deployed over the coming months.

Our team is deployed inside an abandoned shopping mall which has been repurposed to serve as a refugee intake center. The center is nicknamed “Tesco” - the name of the retailer formerly occupying the premises. Inside there is a makeshift clinic, sleeping and eating areas, and an indoor playground. The play area was set up by NATAN's social workers, whose mission is to provide trauma intervention and psychological care for the arriving refugees.

NATAN operates the play area together with volunteers from the Hashomer Hatzair Movement.

NATAN's medical team provide medical aid in the small clinic, working closely with the volunteers of the Polish Red Cross. Dr. Dorit Nitzan said. “We aim to be wherever we are needed for as long as we are needed.”

Send in the Clowns!

NATAN teams also included medical clowns to soothe and entertain troubled children and adults alike. Laughter is the best medicine.

Team 1 - Deployed March 3 - 15

Team 2 - Deployed March 13 - 26

Team 3 - Deployed March 24 - April 5, 2022

Team 4 - Deployed April 4 - 19, 2022

Team 5 - Deployed April 17 - May 1, 2022

Team 6 - Deployed April 29 - May 13, 2022

Team 7 - Deployed May 11 - May 13, 2022

Team 8 - Deployed May 23 - June 6, 2022

Team 9 - Deployed June 4 - June 18, 2022

Team 10 - Deployed June 16 - June 30, 2022

Team 11 - Deployed June 28 - July 11, 2022

Team 12 - Deployed July 9 - July 23, 2022

Team 13 - Deployed July 21 - August 5, 2022

Team 14 - Deployed August 3 - August 17, 2022

Team 15 - Deployed August 15 - August 29, 2022

Partnerships and Collaboration

 

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 the Ukraine. NATAN Ukraine Refugee Relief Operation - March 2022

click here to see the lyrics to the song: Dearest Mother.

 
 
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