Let's spread hope together!
A person is given life only once, and it should be lived with dignity, love, kindness and care from heart to heart.
Recently, during a working visit to the Transcarpathian Education and Research Institute of West Ukrainian National University, the Director of the ERIC Oksana Koval, together with the Director of the ZERI Edita Hrabar and the Coordinator for International Activities Anastasiia Martynevych, met with our brave defenders at the clinic of the Protez Foundation in Svaliava.
The Protez Foundation provides prosthetics to Ukrainian soldiers in the United States and helps patients after rehabilitation to monitor their health in Svaliava. Their goal is to help restore the quality of life and maximise adaptation for people who have lost limbs, provide psychological and emotional support during recovery, and unite people in this important mission.
Soldiers come here to have their prosthetic arm or leg repaired or replaced. The prostheses themselves are made in the USA, in Minneapolis, where the main centre of the foundation is located. A person can apply and after a certain period of time receive a prosthesis free of charge. The work with each patient is tailored to the individual and lasts differently. Prostheses for the military and civilians are made and fitted by prosthetist Yakiv Hradynar, a Transcarpathian who has been working in the US for several years. Here, he is currently training the centre's staff to install and maintain prostheses. Helping Ukrainian soldiers who lost their limbs in the war to take their first steps again, Mr Hradynar says: "We need to give them two things - support and freedom. And they, like children, will take their first steps. On the ground, in the mountains, and back to their homes."
For the clinic's staff, this is not just about medical care: all the work of the foundation is aimed at making soldiers experience real gratitude, love and support after the trauma of war.
We sincerely hope that we will be useful to our defenders during their psychological rehabilitation and will be able to provide them with proper support and care on their way to recovery.
