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Our projects

Our current projects are focused on first aid, evacuation, and definitive care of war casualties in Ukraine. As Ukraine bravely fights Russia’s brutal unprovoked invasion, our team around the world works 24/7 to help save as many lives in Ukraine as possible. We are the only volunteer-run charity solely focused on medical causes for Ukraine. Since 24 February 2022, we have raised over $7 million in donations from individuals, businesses and non-profits all over the world.

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Tactical first aid supplies

Leleka’s core activity is providing high-quality modern tactical first aid supplies to Ukrainian defenders, field doctors and emergency teams.

 

Those are individual first aid kits for Ukrainian soldiers, as well as fully stocked medical backpacks and other rare devices for front-line medics.

 

A single backpack is equipped to save 10+ lives by treating all major types of combat trauma. Often times, field medics are the only source of medical help for civilians in the war zone. 

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Our long-established relationships with a few dozen suppliers in the US and Europe, combined with an utmost efficient logistics, allows us to deliver necessary first aid fast (1.5-2 weeks from order to receipt by end users) and at optimal cost.

To balance delivery time, composition and cost of first aid kits and medical backpacks, we prefer buying pouches and components in bulk, either directly from manufacturers or from large distributors. We only buy original supplies of high quality from verified suppliers. This approach gives us flexibility of sourcing components from various countries based on price and availability. Further, our team in Ukraine assembles the kits immediately before transferring to the end users.

Our team on the ground collects information about needs directly from front-line medics, therefore we always know which supplies are most needed and where from first hands. Our volunteers validate each request to ensure help is directed to the hottest spots first. We are doing this together with our long-time partners in Ukraine: volunteers from Saving Lives in Ukraine, Medicine of the National Home Front and other groups who have a lot of experience assembling and delivering these kits as well as training people to correctly use them. All components of our first-aid kits and medical backpacks are carefully chosen and tested in the field.

Since February 2022, we have supplied over 7,000 medical backpacks and over 18,000 individual first aid kits to the front lines.

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Medical evacuation vehicles

It is widely considered that a critical injury casualty has better chances of survival if they get to the surgery within an hour (known as Golden Hour rule). Therefore, swift medical evacuation is key to survival of the wounded soldiers. Still, a regular ambulance is not able to support evacuation from remote locations because of road conditions and heavy fighting.


Within our medevac for Ukraine project, we purchase ambulances and off-road vehicles in Europe, refurbish and equip them to combat medical evacuation needs and transfer to the units located in the hottest spots in Eastern and Southern Ukraine.

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Hospital equipment

Given the scale and brutality of Russian attacks, Ukrainian hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties and heavily lack modern equipment and supplies to treat severe bombing and shelling wounds. 
 

Our dedicated team works directly with hospitals to identify their needs and purchase critical devices, either on our own or jointly with partners. This includes VAC devices, portable ultrasound and X-ray machines, surgical supplies and many more.

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Ukrainian hospitals are flooded with wounded. Together with The Institute for Emergency Medicine, Poland, we are procuring essential items for basic emergency treatment. Please help us purchase X-Ray machines, orthopedic and surgical consumables. 100% of your donation goes to Ukrainian hospitals!  

Housing for internally displaced seniors

In any big crisis, there are obvious simple fixes and complicated hard dilemmas. Our partners at We are With You (Ukraine) and Under a Kind Roof (USA) are working on one of the latter: housing for lonely seniors who fled combat zones in Ukraine and are now homeless. Pensions and government refugee support are insufficient to pay rent in the cities they fled to. The seniors live in makeshift communal shelters in western Ukraine: school gyms, factories, kindergartens, and whatever space local officials can offer.

The mission of Under a Kind Roof and We are with You is to provide dignified housing for these elders. They rent apartments or houses that can be comfortably shared by small groups of seniors and helps them relocate from communal shelters to places that can more easily be called “home.” They also provide funds to ensure these homes are well-heated in what is promising to be a difficult winter.

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Generators for healthcare facilities

In partnership with the Yellow Blue Force Foundation, we are raising funds to supply electrical power generators to local hospitals in Ukrainian cities.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the russians have been targeting the Ukrainian power grid. This has resulted in intermittent power outages. Recently, the attacks have intensified, as the aggressors have embarked on an explicit strategy of freezing the Ukrainian population to death over winter.  Ukraine’s power generation capacity is being systematically destroyed. 

 

The goal of this project is to provide autonomous power generation capacity to local hospitals and clinics. These are the healthcare institutions that most Ukrainian civilians depend on for their healthcare, including outpatient facilities, urgent and emergency care. 

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Past projects

'Tvorcha Kryivka' art therapy project

Research shows that soldiers who took part in the hostilities often return home with acute psychological conditions that impair functioning, disrupt family relationships and prevent reentry into the workforce. They can also be affected by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which may become chronic if not treated properly. The need for rehabilitation and psychotherapy becomes critical for their further functioning and returning to normal life.

In the world's best practice, there is a significant evidence of a strong role of art in addressing the needs of service members. Art therapy is provided to assess and treat psychological health and cognitive issues, as well as to introduce creating art for relaxation and well-being.

Volunteers’ initiative ‘Creative dugout-house’ (Tvorcha Kryivka) has experience working with people who survived traumatic events. Since March 2014, over 70 people received rehabilitation services thanks to the projects of the Initiative. Creative rehabilitation (art therapy) is carried out by the initiative in the three directions: psychological, social and biographical rehabilitation. Means for creative rehabilitation are: outdoors time, communication, artwork aimed to establish the connection of soldiers with the world outside, society and their own inner world. They study how to live productive and healthy life again. Rehabilitation takes place in a Carpathian mountain resort towns in Ukraine, where soldiers have the opportunity to get healthier physically spiritually and emotionally.

The project cost is minimal, thanks to active support of the community members, who cover accommodation and meals and support rehabilitation activities.

Training that takes place within the project aims to transfer knowledge and skills in art therapy to the local specialists who will be able to continue working on the project on a volunteer basis.

We accept donations for: travel and accommodation fees for volunteers; professional service fees (physiotherapists and psychiatrists, project coordinator who work with soldiers and train local volunteers); art-supplies; meals, covered partially; hygienic supplies.

Future projects

We are working on projects to support soldiers returning from the war and their families in their transition back to peaceful lives. Ukraine has not been at war in many decades and there is little experience and expertise in treating PTSD and other psychological trauma. We hope to be able to help.

We are also developing projects to help disadvantaged and sick children in Ukraine.

Follow our Facebook page to get notified of any updates on the ongoing and new projects. You can contact us with any requests or help by making a donation in many ways.

Contact us

Leleka Foundation, 380 Hamilton Ave #291, Palo Alto, CA 94302, United States

+1 202 929-1975

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