Amidst Crisis, a Joint Effort Brings Essential Medicines to Ukraine
On March 7, 2022, the @MATES4Kids network urgently pivoted after receiving a request to assist with access to CAH medicines in Ukraine amidst their tragic and ongoing conflict. With thanks to Life for a Child, an NGO in our network championing efforts for children living with Type 1 diabetes, @MATES4Kids connected with Direct Relief for the first time, creating the foundation for a strong relationship and commitment to ongoing collaboration. A meeting with WHO later that month solidified the need for a multistakeholder approach to achieving access to medicine for children in Ukraine and helped identify priorities for critical action, including:
  • Strengthen needs assessment & emergency response capacity of WHO relevant to childhood NCDs. Explore opportunities to support WHO to engage technical persons to assist with Needs Assessments/data & evidence-based approach to humanitarian donation response; more accurate estimates of the number of people who need support needed

  • Identify conditions & medicines & equipment that should be integrated within emergency response lists for childhood NCDs

  • Secure emergency CAH Medicines supplies for Ukraine CAH Community. International CAH Community will continue to facilitate short-term humanitarian donations for Ukraine CAH Community using identified routes to date
  • Include CAH medications in list of drugs that should be integrated within emergency responses
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  • Review the humanitarian donation list to ensure all key childhood NCDs / medicines are included

​Following several additional meetings, including with the Ukraine team themselves, @MATES4Kids submitted an application to Direct Relief to commence processes required for emergency shipments of supplies. At the time, T1D supplies were sufficient, however, Ukraine was still in need of essential medicines for CAH patients as well as people living with other paediatric endocrine conditions. By May of 2022, all immediate medicine and equipment needs had been met, and emergency supplies of fludrocortisone, hydrocortisone, and L-Thyroxine had arrived.

As of November 2022, all medicines required for the management of paediatric endocrine conditions in Ukraine were available to doctors and families. @MATES4Kids sincerely thanks Direct Relief and the many civil society organisations who assisted in achieving this remarkable outcome. This experience of securing supply of essential medicines for children in Ukraine serves as a promising example of how @MATES4Kids may approach similar humanitarian emergencies in the future.