Okhmatdyt doctors examine children from Borodyanka

Before the full-scale invasion, Borodyanka Central District Hospital had 21 family doctors and a pediatrician. With the outbreak of war, some doctors left to escape, and one doctor and her family were killed during the bombing of Borodyanka. Today, the hospital has 13 specialists. At least two more doctors are sorely needed to complete the staff. To this end, the community is ready to provide housing for those doctors who agree to come to Borodyanka and live and work here, UNN reports.

While no such doctors were found and the community is experiencing a shortage of personnel, Okhmatdyt Hospital, with the support of the MHP-Community and Children of Heroes Charitable Foundations, in partnership with MHP Vegetable Treasury  LLC, organized an on-site medical visit to Borodyanka on October 4. During this time they managed to examine about 170 children who are undergoing a medical examination or have lost one of their parents due to the war in Ukraine, 37 of whom are wards of the Children of Heroes Charitable Foundation.  

One of the visitors is Tatiana Bukina. During the bombing of Borodyanka, she lost her son and daughter-in-law and is now raising her grandchildren on her own. Currently, Tatyana Bukina lives in a modular house in her native Borodyanka and is grateful that she was able to be examined by Okhmatdyt doctors and have her granddaughter examined so quickly. She says that she has received doctors' prescriptions and will now be treated.    

All the children had access to consultations of such specialists as gastroenterologist, allergist, surgeon, neurologist, orthopedist, hematologist, infectious disease specialist, ophthalmologist, psychologist and others. All visitors to the mobile Okhmatdyt underwent a blood test for 24 parameters using expensive equipment purchased by the MHP-Hromada Charitable Foundation. This procedure significantly speeds up and makes the diagnosis more accurate. 

In total, since the beginning of 2023, Okhmatdyt doctors, with the support of MHP-Hromada, have visited more than 10 settlements in Ukraine and examined almost 5500 children. This is the first time Okhmatdyt doctors have visited Borodianka as part of the Health Moneybox project, but the third time in total. As in other settlements where they had previously made field visits, they recorded  endocrine disorders, allergic pathologies, and gynecological diseases. According to Olga Medvedeva, head of the pediatric department of the Okhmatdyt National Children's Hospital, all of these problems arise due to chronic  stress, post-traumatic stress disorder and poor nutrition, which negatively affect children's health.

As Roman Maister, director of MHP Vegetable Treasury LLC, emphasized , , Borodyanka's children need the help of specialized doctors, and in particular, the help of psychologists, more than anyone else.

 -  Vegetable Treasury MHP is a new enterprise in the MHP family that adopts the experience of social responsibility of the parent company. Therefore, it takes care of its own employees and ensures that they and all other children from the community have access to timely and necessary medical examinations by leading doctors of Okhmatdyt," emphasizes Roman Maister. "This way we will implement MHP's best practices and projects for community development in Borodyanka.

Given that during and after the occupation, a significant portion of local businesses left Borodianka, the emergence of new businesses  - is a great support and strengthening for the community.

 -  It is incredibly important for Borodianka that business is recovering and creating jobs, paying taxes, thereby supporting opportunities for development and implementing additional social initiatives that do not relate to the community budget," said Iryna Zakharchenko, Borodianka village head.    

Volodymyr Zabela, Head of MHP's Regional Development Group  , supports the view that communities like Borodyanska  today need stable support and strong partnerships from business to help develop the community and implement social initiatives.

 - Today, there are many weaknesses in the communities that have been occupied during the full-scale invasion. One of them is related to the health of our children. Therefore, thanks to the partnership of business, local authorities and the community, we were able to organize the arrival of doctors who provided professional advice to the children. This is extremely important, because children's health is the strength of our nation in the future, says Volodymyr Zabela. [This is also necessary for the integration of the UN Sustainable Development Goals into communities, which are supported by MHP and the MHP-Community Foundation.

Such projects always find the most response among community members, because when a whole team of doctors leaves their  offices and comes to visit children in a village or small town, it is always about care and concern.

 - We engage Okhmatdyt doctors to support communities where families and children find it difficult to get medical care. Today, this is Borodyanka, a town that has gone through severe trials as a result of a full-scale invasion. Many residents were forced to leave to save their lives, but those who stayed or returned are the foundation of the future of the Borodyanka community. That's why we support these people - those who have survived, who did not break, who continue to restore and develop Borodyanka, making it a city where you want to live and create, explains Oleksandr Pakholyuk, Director of the MHP-Community Charitable Foundation.

According to Yulia Petruchenko, deputy head of the department for working with families affected by military aggression at the Children of Heroes Charitable Foundation, the examination not only provides knowledge about health, but also forms children's responsibility for their own well-being and  contributes to the creation of a culture of healthy lifestyle, which is extremely important in our time.