August 12, 2016

Rehabilitation center funded by donations from Ukrainian diaspora opens in Lviv

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Roman Woronowycz

Guests fill the reception hall at the Lviv State Enterprise for Mobility and Prosthetics on August 5 for the opening of a modern rehabilitation center funded by donations from the North American Ukrainian community, including the Ukrainian National Foundation and Markian Paslawsky Fund.

LVIV – After more than a year of careful planning, countless site visits and fund-raising in the United States, a modern rehabilitation center to help Ukraine’s wounded soldiers opened in western Ukraine’s largest city in August.

The center showcased how far $40,000 can go towards ensuring a more dignified life for people who’ve lost their limbs. The amount was raised last year by the Ukrainian National Foundation and the New York-based Markian Paslawsky Fund.

Entrusted to the Kyiv-based International Alliance for Fraternal Assistance (IAFA), the money was used to renovate some 3,000 square meters of space and install occupational and physical therapy equipment in five rooms that are situated at the Lviv State Enterprise for Mobility and Prosthetics.

“I’m thrilled,” said Olena Paslawsky, a sister of Markian Paslawsky in whose honor the rehabilitation center was named and who was killed on August 19, 2014, during fierce fighting in the city of Ilovaisk in Donetsk Oblast. “At the end of the day it wasn’t that much money and it was amazing what was accomplished… To be able to find a facility with relatively little funding, but again [with the] commitment from the people here, it’s an amazing accomplishment.”

She added that people “are very pleased that the money is going to good use” and commented, “I think people want to be generous. They just want to know that things are happening with their funds. This is a fabulous example.”

The sister of the slain West Point graduate, who had joined the then-volunteer Donbas Battalion when Russia invaded eastern Ukraine in early 2014, was referring to the modern weightlifting equipment, treadmill, two vehicle-driving simulators, a kitchenette and other facilities.

A Donbas Battalion soldier who fought with Markian Paslawsky in Ilovaisk speaks at the opening of the rehabilitation center. Seated (from left) are: Viktoria Olikh, head doctor of the center; Marat Mukhametov, acting director of the Lviv State Enterprise for Mobility and Prosthetics; and Viktoriia Voronovych, director of the Kyiv-based International Alliance for Fraternal Assistance.

A Donbas Battalion soldier who fought with Markian Paslawsky in Ilovaisk speaks at the opening of the rehabilitation center. Seated (from left) are: Viktoria Olikh, head doctor of the center; Marat Mukhametov, acting director of the Lviv State Enterprise for Mobility and Prosthetics; and Viktoriia Voronovych, director of the Kyiv-based International Alliance for Fraternal Assistance.

Up to 25 patients can now undergo therapy that lasts as long as six weeks upon receiving a prosthetic from the facility run by the Social Policy Ministry, a testament to the public-nonprofit partnership.

Before, patients fitted with prosthetics were given only up to two weeks of therapy and shown how to use their new appendage upon which they would be released. Now they could receive up to six weeks of expanded therapy and become more self-reliant, lead a more full-fledged life and even get trained to drive a taxi or public transportation vehicle.

About 70,000 people without limbs are registered at the state-run prosthetics manufacturer, 53 of whom are combat war veterans who are granted service priority, according to Marat Mukhametov, acting director of the state enterprise.

Visitors to the rehabilitation center at the Lviv State Enterprise for Mobility examine physical therapy equipment that is used to strengthen muscles and make it easier use prosthetics.

Roman Woronowycz

Visitors to the rehabilitation center at the Lviv State Enterprise for Mobility examine physical therapy equipment that is used to strengthen muscles and make it easier use prosthetics.

“We’ve no waiting list, people are given custom-fit prosthetics according to schedule, and we always manage to accommodate those that planning doesn’t foresee,” Mr. Mukhametov told The Ukrainian Weekly.

The IAFA chose the Lviv center after evaluating 15 other such facilities in Ukraine. Having worked with the Kyiv charity group prior to embarking on this project by sending goods to the war front, Ms. Paslawsky said the “key was finding a trustworthy partner.”

And they did.

Viktoriia Voronovych, director of the IAFA, had conducted over 20 site visits to the Lviv facility in the past year and found a local contractor who remodeled the rooms at his expense.

Having the “raw space” and a “dedicated staff” is what made all the difference for choosing the government-run facility among others, noted Ms. Paslawsky.

One of two driving simulators, each costing $10,000, that rehabilitation patients can use to learn how to drive vehicles and eventually find employment in the transportation industry.

One of two driving simulators, each costing $10,000, that rehabilitation patients can use to learn how to drive vehicles and eventually find employment in the transportation industry.

“Vika and [her husband] Roman [Woronowycz] represent the best that you could ask in partners. If you could find that, you could do anything, but be realistic about how much can be accomplished,” she said.

Indeed, the IAFA has been recognized by the Ukrainian Association of Charity Givers as the best local charitable NGO in Ukraine. First Lady Maryna Poroshenko has also bestowed an award on the group.

But this is only the start, Ms. Voronovych said.

“This center isn’t complete yet, this is only the beginning. We shall continue raising money and putting forth effort, form additional partnerships, all to build a modern facility,” she said. “We would like to send our doctors and specialists on study tours to see first-hand how such rehab centers function abroad.”

Local staff have already been trained in showing how the newly purchased equipment works.

Seventy-five percent of the funds were raised on July 10, 2015, at a fund-raising banquet at the Soyuzivka Heritage Center during the Ukrainian Cultural Festival. The center is owned by the Ukrainian National Foundation, a registered non-profit that conducts charitable activity on behalf of the Ukrainian National Association. An additional $10,000 was donated by the family-run charitable Markian Paslawsky Fund that was established two years ago to honor the Ukrainian American.

A longtime resident and businessman in Kyiv, Mr. Paslawsky took part in the peaceful uprising known as the Euro-Maidan Revolution of November 2013-February 2014. After Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and its subsequent invasion of the easternmost Donbas region in April, Mr. Paslawsky took up arms with the Donbas Battalion, an armed volunteer fighting unit that helped stop the spread of Moscow-backed separatism in the east.

According to Donbas Battalion veterans with whom The Ukrainian Weekly spoke at the opening of the rehabilitation center, Mr. Paslawsky was struck by shrapnel from a mortar while defending a pedestrian bridge in Ilovaisk. He had religiously worn body armor, but on that fateful day didn’t put his flak vest on, according to war veterans who were with Mr. Paslawsky on the day of his death.

Marat Mukhametov, acting director of the Lviv State Enterprise for Mobility and Prosthetics, gives an appreciation award to the mother of Markian Paslawsky, Orysia Paslawsky, at the opening ceremonies of a rehabilitation center that will help Ukrainian war veterans.

Marat Mukhametov, acting director of the Lviv State Enterprise for Mobility and Prosthetics, gives an appreciation award to the mother of Markian Paslawsky, Orysia Paslawsky, at the opening ceremonies of a rehabilitation center that will help Ukrainian war veterans.

Representatives of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv also attended the center’s opening ceremony. The university’s vice-rector for development and communications, Nataliya Klymovska, said the educational institute is looking to partner with the rehabilitation center. The university is establishing a rehabilitation medical training facility and is looking to find centers where its students can conduct 1,000 hours of practical medicine that the curriculum requires.

Mr. Mukhametov noted that everyone at the center is learning in the process.

“This kind of [prolonged] rehabilitation is new to us as well,” he explained. “Our task was to fit the prosthetic and show patients how to use them to walk or do other things. We understood that this was insufficient. This gives more opportunity for people to stay in good physical shape. The purpose of this center is for people to leave as full-fledged members of society. We’re new to this and learn as we go as well.”

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