For nearly 300 days Russia has been trying to destroy Ukraine. Having achieved no more or less considerable military victories and having lost about 100 000 of its soldiers, Russia has chosen civilians as a new target for its aggression. Following a strategy of genocide of the Ukrainian nation, recent massive missile attacks have ruined 50% of Ukrainian energetic infrastructure, that caused widespread power and heating cuts.
Do you want to know what it is like to feel Ukrainian now even in the most safe place like Uzhhorod ? To begin with, because electricity is supplied according to a schedule 2 in 5 hours you need to have an essential item of our everyday life – a flashlight because otherwise you will not see where to go, the same as nobody will see you because the streets are empty and dark without traffic lights. Christmas shop windows do not please your eye with their colorful lights anymore and there are no light decorations on the city squares.
The air is impregnated by the exhaust fumes from the electric generators of those who can afford them and you feel deafened by the cacophony of sirens and operating generator engines. Thank God, the majority of Uzhhorod citizens spend their mornings and evenings with solar battery flashlights or, most often, with candles though that does not make the atmosphere more romantic. Because of the minus temperature outside, homes and working places lose warmth very quickly from cut off to cut off and you are looking for a place like a supermarket which can afford powerful engines to warm yourself. Your shopping strategy changes drastically and you start buying products in reserve because nobody knows if you will find your shop open next time because of the cut off or alarm. Though there is another problem with the leaking refrigerators that can spoil all your reserves. Your favorite cafés and restaurants are closed and your mobile phones most often cannot connect you with your beloved ones. You must be ready that your children and your students either on -or off- line will never have all their lessons during the day because part of this time they will spend in the shelter…Just try such life for a day or two and you will know what it is to feel like Ukrainian.
These are not fragments from some apocalypse film but the reality of Ukrainian life nowadays.
Nevertheless, Interfamily Clinic that was created thanks to your help has been struggling to survive for three months already.
The top long awaited news is that Interfamily Clinic has finally got the License from the Ukrainian Ministry of Health Care finally after 2 month of expectations of this acknowledgement! Now the Clinic is legally allowed to employ doctors of 20 different specialties, to apply for the state supported vaccination, and for the capitation fees from the government if we get the state permission to sign declarations (agreement for primary medical care) with patients.
The team building work has brought great results: we managed to create a family of like-minded specialists. Not a single member of the staff left the team though we remain to be a voluntary organization. The number of patients has increased and now with two active working offices amounts to 35 people a day. We had to change the schedule of our work because of the cut offs, and now there are two shifts: from 9.00 till 13.00 and from 13.00 to 17.00, including Saturday from 10.00-13.00. In spite of often electric cut offs we keep on working though in more complicated conditions: without Internet but with the manual registration operations instead. Without generators and accumulators the doctor’s rooms cool down quickly, so members of the staff and our patients have to be in their outerwear and we are forced to keep medical examinations very short.
