UGCC Patriarchal Cathedral to set up outlets to distribute oxygen concentrators

This is reported by the UGCC Information Department.

"When Covid burst out and people started getting sick, when there was a terrible lack of oxygen in public hospitals, we transferred about 50 concentrators there. But about a year ago, we realized that oxygen should be given directly to people because in hospitals it often does not reach those who need immediate help. And we launched this project, "says Valentyna Varava, chairman of the management board of NGO "Initiative +".

"At first, we had only four concentrators, but later our "fleet" grew to 90 devices. Last week, we purchased four more devices, and we also have 14 CPAP devices. We provide these concentrators all over Ukraine," she added.

The target audience of the project with oxygen concentrators is people who suffer from covid and who need to wait for hospitalization because hospitals do not always have a place.

"In the beginning, when places in hospitals were sorely lacking, these devices helped people survive for several days before they got to hospitals," says Valentyna. "Now our main audience, our patients are people discharged from the hospital who need oxygen. Another group is palliative patients and people with cancer who need this oxygen support almost for life."

Valentyna Varava says that the cooperation of NGO "Initiative +" with the UGCC began almost from the time of the creation of this public organization – with cooperation with the Patriarch's Kryivka in 2014 when the wounded were redirected there. And now, when a question of help with the arrangement of the oxygen station emerged, the first place where doctors turned was the Patriarchal Cathedral.

"We and our Canadian friends and partners understood that it was very difficult to implement this project in our small room, if at all possible because our other projects are also working," says Valentina. "And one of our Canadians, Bohdan Chernyavsky, advised us to contact the Patriarchal Cathedral again: perhaps there will be a room with a separate entrance for us there – this is a mandatory requirement so that the virus is not introduced and no one is infected. And now the premises have been found: now we are arranging ourselves, preparing an information sign stating that such a clause applies at the Patriarchal Council. And one more thing: we are pleasantly surprised that the cathedral has opened a vaccination outlet. We are very well aware of how important vaccination is and how it saves people's lives and health: there are almost no vaccinated people in the Fifty devices that we provide for use – these are only a few out of hundreds. As a matter of fact, it just so happens that we could support this initiative of the council with vaccination, and we are engaged in hubs. But it is better to let everyone be alive and well."

The UGCC is also satisfied with the cooperation with the NGO "Initiative+"

"It is very important for us that the Patriarchal Cathedral becomes the center of various good initiatives that the Church and the community can implement together, taking care of both social service and human health – both physical and spiritual. On the platform of the Patriarchal Cathedral, we combine various initiatives of volunteer movements and public organizations so that they can better serve people," says Fr. Lubomyr Yavorsky.

NGO "Initiative +" back in 2013 brought together the doctors of the Maidan.

Since then, the organization has been providing social and medical assistance to the families of the dead and wounded defenders of Ukraine, displaced persons from war zones in the East, deals with two family-type orphanages in the Donbas, and so on. During the COVID-19 pandemic, NGO "Initiative +" launched "hospital projects": providing protective equipment for doctors, oxygen concentrators for patients, humanitarian aid for hospitals with medical equipment and supplies. These initiatives are implemented with the support of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation in the framework of the Joint Project "Oxygen for Life.