25 August 2023: Ukraine Independence Day – Building Bridges

Building Bridges

The European Stroke Organisation deplores the war in Ukraine and stands by its position that the Russian invasion in Ukraine and indiscriminate attacks by Russian military forces are unjustified and wrong.

Since the very first days of the conflict, ESO has been supporting actively stroke victims and stroke healthcare workers in response to the conflict in Ukraine by with multiple initiatives. Among these, ESO has established a dedicated task force, which has carried out successfully a series of significative actions under different domains:

Communication and Coordinated Support:

• Creation of Telegram groups for direct communication among members of Ukrainian stroke organisations and ESO members to empower immediate response
• Coordination with WHO for joint support
• Circulation of surveys to assess and address urgent medical needs – the results have also been used to write a paper (under evaluation) to describe Ukrainian stroke system response during the first term of the conflict.

Financial Initiatives:

• free ESO membership for Ukrainian colleagues
• free access to virtual ESOC 2022 for Ukrainian colleagues connecting from Ukraine
• 15 grants to support participation to ESOC 2023 in Munich
• 10 grants to Ukrainian Neurologists to visit Stroke Unit in a European country- read their stories on our website pages
• Rehabilitation materials delivered to Ukraine – we are very thankful to Professor Hanne Christensen (Copenhagen, Denmark) for this successful operation!

Patients support:

• Formal and informal networking to support stroke victims in needs of rehabilitation, drugs medical support in Ukraine and abroad – we are very thankful to Professor Giancarlo Graziani, San Filippo Neri Hospital, Rome, for having received the first Ukrainian stroke patient in his rehabilitation unit in March 2022.

Cultural initiatives: medical education and research:

• Two Webinar series for Ukrainian colleagues addressing the specific needs of Ukrainian doctors with simultaneous Ukrainian translation, a third series focusing on clinical cases and challenging stroke research issues – we are very thankful to Angels for offering the technical support and simultaneous translation, and to Professor Charlotte Sandset  (Oslo, Norway) for developing, organizing and keep working this project aided by Dr. Pavlo Lebedynets ( Kiev, Ukraine).

• University of Oslo Awards Grant to Task Force 4 Ukraine to assess the impact of the war on stroke care, to fund stroke awareness campaign for the general public designed for Ukraine taking into account current situation; to provide access to educational programs for stroke neurologists and physicians within the country. We are very thankful to Professor Charlotte Sandset  (Oslo, Norway); Prof. Yuriy Flomin (Kiev, Ukraine) Dr. Pavlo Lebedynets ( Kiev, Ukraine),  Dr. Dmytro Lebedynets ( Kiev, Ukraine) for working and succeeding in this.

(ESO and ) TaskForce members for Ukraine believe in science, knowledge, individual and societal health as values to connect people from different cultures and foster mutual understanding.

Stroke science and ESO mission of improved stroke care are the stones in the bridge built by the the task force to protect our values, principles and who share those from violence and inhumanity.

While we continue hoping for an instant, fair and peaceful resolution of this conflict.

ESO TF4UKR

Samuel Beckett Bridge Dublin, 24.08.2023