“Just seeing people so helpless and cut off … knowing that resources are difficult or not there at all … we wanted to do something,” said Mills. Hospital maternity wards, community centres and apartment buildings are also being destroyed as Russia rains missiles down on cities and towns. The Victoria paramedics said they were motivated to act after seeing news reports of civilians and medical responders being targeted or caught in the crossfire in attacks by Russian forces. They expect to be met at the border, on the Ukraine side.
Mills and Sims, who are flying to Poland on Sunday, will drive the ambulances over the border into the Ukraine and transfer everything into the hands of paramedics with Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital. The pair said donations have been coming from family, friends and members of the public and ambulance community, but corporate and business donations could help them buy more supplies and vehicles for the battlefield. They say a third ambulance is available to purchase if the funds continue to roll in, and the fully equipped vehicles should be ready for the war zone by early next week. A single $16,000 donation by Vancouver paramedic Will Rogers later in the day allowed them to buy another - both through a paramedic contact based in Poland. Sickened by the violence against civilians and their first-responder colleagues in Ukraine, two Victoria paramedics have acquired two ambulances full of medical supplies and plan to deliver them to the war-torn country next week.Īdvanced-care paramedics Andrew Mills and Melissa Sims have been feverishly fundraising to acquire an ambulance since April 5, with the help of a network they created involving paramedics in Vancouver and Europe and a Ukrainian mobile volunteer hospital working on the front lines.Īs of Wednesday morning, they had raised $25,000 to buy one ambulance.
0 kommentar(er)
