Themes by tag: Ivano-Frankivsk

In a collaborative effort, plastic surgeons from Canada, the United States, and Ukraine are gearing up for the third installment of the “Face the Future Ukraine” medical mission. It aims to provide reconstructive facial surgery to wounded military personnel and civilians. A total of 30 surgeries are slated to be performed on individuals who have sustained severe mine-blast injuries to their faces and necks. The patients come from various regions of Ukraine and include both military personnel and civilians affected by the war. Led by a team of 15 international specialists, the medical mission follows on the heels of two previous successful endeavors, during which “Face the Future Ukraine” surgeons assisted 60 Ukrainians in need. Notably, all surgeries are provided free of charge.

• doctors
• Ivano-Frankivsk

Daria-Olha, a resident of Mariupol, was 15 when she tried boxing for the first time. The girl showed a lot of promise, as 3 months after she started training, the athlete went to the all-Ukrainian competitions. In 2022, 18-year-old Daria-Olha was supposed to go to the European Championship, but russia launched the full-scale invasion and the enemy troops surrounded Mariupol. At first, the athlete’s family was going to wait out the russian shelling in an apartment together with their friends. Later they had to relocate to the basement. At this time, there was no network coverage, gas and electricity in the city. Even in such conditions, Daria continued training to keep in shape.

The family managed to leave besieged Mariupol in a truck with strangers, the trip to Zaporizhia took them over a day, because they had to go through russian checkpoints. After getting to Ukraine-controlled territory, Daria-Olha found out that her coach had left for Ivano-Frankivsk, so she went to him. There, the girl enrolled at Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University’s Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, because she dreams of becoming a trainer. In May 2022, Daria-Olha won bronze at the International Boxing Tournament in Sweden in the category of under 52 kilograms. Currently, the Ukrainian boxer is training to win the gold at the Olympics.

• women
• Ivano-Frankivsk

Zakhar Chernykov had not yet turned two years old when Russia first attacked Ukraine East. His family moved from Donetsk to Nikopol in the Dnipro region, and when Russia launched its full-blown invasion, Zakhar’s mother, Tetiana Chernykova, and her husband moved to Ivano-Frankivsk, where they still reside.

When in the new city, the parents found out that Zakhar had vision problems. Doctors advised the boy to avoid eye strain. Tetiana found some children’s audiobooks for her son, but Zakhar disliked them as they were narrated by adult voice actors. So the mother suggested the boy try himself as a child narrator.

Later, they started a telegram channel where the schoolboy publishes his recordings and invites people to donate to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He reads several chapters every night, Zakhar has already read voiceovers for 12 books. In addition, he recently created a blog on social media to challenge stereotypes that children and adults from the East of Ukraine can’t speak Ukrainian. On the blog, he also helps those who want to switch to Ukrainian.

• children
• Ivano-Frankivsk

Ivano-Frankivsk-based “Warrior’s House” communal institution has launched the “Defender’s Family’s Helper” service. The goal is to help families whose relatives are taking part in the defense of the country or died defending it.

The service was created because a single mother, wife or sister of a defender usually cannot repair a tap or a door lock on their own, and such services are expensive in professional companies. So, now relatives of the military can call in the assistance from a “helper”: “Warrior’s House” communal institution will select a specialist to perform a specific task, and they will also monitor the quality of their work.

There are more than 20 items in the list of services that “helpers” can provide. For instance, these include fixing a light switch, sharpening knives, hanging a picture, a curtain rod and a mirror, transporting things when moving, installing household appliances, fixing a tap and many other services that the handymen are qualified to do.

Journalists can cover the realization of the project in both offline and online formats.

• Ivano-Frankivsk

Ivan Teremko has been a priest for 30 years, and for 22 years he has been conducting church services on prostheses. In 1999, he became the abbot of the Archangel Michael Church in the village of Hlushkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk region. (Recently, he was awarded a high church award – the “Cross of Freedom” medal).

A few days ago, a photo went viral, in which the priest is sitting with a Ukrainian defender who lost both his legs in the war with both their prostheses nearby. The priest shared his experience of holding church services for more than 20 years despite living with the amputations of his two legs, and also supported the military man.

Ivan Teremko lost his legs as a result of extreme weather that raged in 2002. He was trapped in the snow, and he even had to crawl on his hands through the snow to survive.

Journalists are welcome to learn more about this tragic case and how the priest takes care of his parish during the war by talking to him offline or online. 

• religion
• Ivano-Frankivsk

Mariia Lutsak is a seamstress from Ivano-Frankivsk region, who founded the first co-sewing space in her region. Mariia set up two directions of work: one is volunteers who sew warm clothes for the Ukrainian military, and the other is craftswomen who create fashion collections for sale.

After the full-scale invasion began, Mariia saw the need for warm clothing for the Defense Forces and managed to unite the women of her community to sew clothes for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Women worked even during a blackout, using flashlights as sources of light.

Eventually, Mariia decided that it was worth scaling up production and making underwear for the military as well. The woman received a grant from the Ukrainian Women’s Fund, so now she has special sewing machines for sewing underwear. 

• volunteers
• women
• Ivano-Frankivsk

Yurii Furyk is a gymnastics coach. He has been training athletes and preparing master gymnastics competition winners for 30 years. When the full-scale war started, the man enlisted in the military without any hesitation and moved to the front line. Yurii defended Kherson, Bakhmut, and Soledar, where he got a leg injury that later led to suffering limb loss. The trainer and soldier took up the challenge of learning to use the prosthesis. A month ago, he returned to school in Kolomyia and went on teaching gymnastics to the students who supported him throughout.

• casualties
• military
• Ivano-Frankivsk

Ivanna Slobodyanyuk worked as a journalist, project author, and TV host for 10 years. During the full-scale invasion, she covered Russian crimes in foreign media outlets and began documenting the war traveling to the East after the loss of her friend. Ivanna decided to make a film in honor of her friend, an aerial reconnaissance man Felix Kurtanych, who died in April 2022, 

The historical-documentary film “Felix” tells the story of a Ukrainian hero and includes references to Ukraine’s way to independence. The film presents key events that make the audience reflect on the price the nation paid for its independence through the centuries and continues to defend it to this day.

The film was funded by Ivanna as a director and supported by donations from the military and compassionate individuals. The entire team worked voluntarily.

The movie will be presented in Lviv on August 10, Ivano-Frankivsk on August 11, Kolomyya on August 12, and in Austria on August 25. The proceeds from the film’s screening will be donated to the needs of the army.

Reference: Felix Kurtanych defended Ukraine in 2014. After two years, he left the service. With the beginning of the full-scale war, he defended Kyiv Oblast and later fought in the East of the country. The young man saved his comrades and was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage, Third Class.

It was he who flew a drone with an ad stating Garage for sale in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district with the phone number of the former Russian embassy in Ukraine, which intruded into the Reuters’ live broadcast from Kyiv’s Maidan Square on February 16, 2022.

• culture
• dead
• military
• volunteers
• Ivano-Frankivsk
• Lviv

To help children survive the psychological consequences of the war, the Voices of Children Charitable Foundation organizes summer camps in various cities of the country. Children of military personnel and prisoners, as well as those who left the occupation or front-line territories were invited to free psychosocial support camps.

Children participate in various activities: trips, camping, sports games, master classes, volunteering. Special attention is paid to the psycho-emotional state. Experienced psychologists of the Foundation hold group and individual classes with children.

Day camps are held in Lviv, Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kryvyi Rih, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv, Skhidnytsia. There are also camping sites with overnight stays in Mukachevo, Uzhhorod and Lviv.

Background: During the year of the full-scale war, Voices of Children Charitable Foundation provided psychological and psychosocial assistance to 4,700 children and more than 1,800 adults.

• children
• Dnipro
• Ivano-Frankivsk
• Lviv
• Uzhhorod

The Malteser Relief Service launched ‘Mobile Space for Games’ project to provide psychosocial support to children in an entertaining form. Three specialized teams on buses filled with game and sports equipment go on trips around Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia regions. Each team consists of psychologists, entertainers and art therapists who organize the so-called “smart entertainment.”

In this way, experts help children cope with psychological trauma caused by the war, as well as facilitate integration of refugee children in new communities. They plan to help 8,000 children as a part of the project.

Up to 100 children of all ages take part in “smart entertainment” during a single trip.

• children
• psychological support
• Ivano-Frankivsk
• Lviv
• Uzhhorod