Greg Hodgson – Denver, Colorado … I was feeling a bit anxious as we waited in the rain at the Poland/Ukraine border for our partners to come across. The leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist clinic in Kiev had agreed to meet Roger Cabbage, founder of GA 2020, a non-profit which supplies water filters to developing countries, and I at the border and then travel with us to Lviv, Ukraine for further meetings.
With no commercial flights available into Ukraine, the next option was to fly into Poland, drive to the border crossing, leave our vehicle in an empty field turned into parking lot, and walk across the border into Ukrainian territory. It was a relief when we saw the smiling faces of Olena Vladovska, COO of the clinic, and her husband Vlad, as they made it through the border controls.
Global Health Initiatives (GHI), the international mission department at Centura Health, had taken steps in 2019 to create a new partnership with Clinica Angelia in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. While established only a few years ago in 2016, this facility was growing, and we were anxious to establish international partnerships with supporters outside the country. A GHI clinical trip had been planned for the spring of 2020, but COVID brought a halt to that effort. Then Russia invaded Ukraine on February 22, 2022.
Communications with Dr Yury Bondarenko, CEO of Clinica Angelia, were sporadic during those first few months of the war, but we were able to glean enough information to know that the staff were safe, and most had relocated to facilities near the border with Romania.
Their first concern was to provide food and supplies to the people still living in Kiev, as well as to facilitate the transfer of refugees to the border. Once these efforts were established, Yury and team started, at the end of March, to focus on providing health care to various communities, especially those cities and towns which were liberated from the Russian occupiers. Donations to GHI and to our partners at AdventHealth enabled the Clinic to purchase and rehab two vehicles which now house mobile medical and dental services.
On October 4, 2022, Clinica Angelia received an award from the Ukrainian Parliament in recognition of their dedicated service to the Ukrainian nation which, according to Yury, made them happy and inspired to do more. [Rusian Stefanchuk, Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament is pictured with Yury Bondarenko]
It was an incredible blessing to be able to meet with Yury, Olena, and Vlad. Our meetings highlighted the opportunities available to provide additional medical aid through the mobile clinics, and the need for additional mobile facilities and equipment. The staff at Clinica Angelia have all made huge sacrifices since the war began yet have resisted the urge to flee the country. They instead, decided to stay and help in any way they can. They are heroes and deserve our continued prayers and support.
–Greg Hodgson, Director, Global Health Initiatives. Photos supplied
