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
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.

@MATES4Kids is an international movement committed to reducing the preventable mortality associated with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH). CLAN (Caring & Living As Neighbours) is the founding Secretariat of @MATES4Kids and this Activity Report captures key initiatives and achievements of the movement from January 2022 to June 2023.

Acknowledgement of Country. In the spirit of reconciliation, @MATES4Kids acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and the connections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to land, sea and community. In particular, we acknowledge the Wallumedegal Peoples of the Eora Nation, on whose land CLAN (Caring & Living As Neighbours) is headquartered. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all First Nations leaders around the world.