Hope Haven International (HHI), Rotary Sioux Falls West and Sioux Falls Downtown, recently returned from a wheelchair appropriation trip to Izmail, Ukraine. Grant #GG2001299, which was written and approved in 2018 by Rotary International (RI), along with a partnering grant from US Aid for Eastern European countries, was completed that year.
COVID stranded this grant in 2019 for two years, and then the Russia/Ukraine war broke out, also delaying the processes of the grant until May of 2024. This grant is still not completed, as there are about 100 wheelchairs remaining to be distributed out of the 450 wheelchairs that were received back in 2018.
They changed this grant to help relief efforts for Ukrainian soldiers wounded in the war. 250 new and refurbished wheelchairs were given to the war vets by the Izmail Rotary Club. These wheelchairs were originally supposed to go to the people that HHI and the Izmail Rotary Club had identified as needing wheelchairs. Unfortunately, most of the people needing these wheelchairs either fled the country or passed away. In addition, there was additional cash in the grant earmarked for seven hospitals in and around Izmail, but was repurposed, with RI approval, to purchase a diesel generator for the military hospital in Odessa, Ukraine. The balance of the cash remaining in the grant was used to purchase additional crutches and walkers.
In May of this year, Richard Koele and myself from HHI, went to Izmail to start the process of giving away the additional wheelchairs. Daniel Mereuta, the Director of HHI in Romania, also joined us. On that first trip, we distributed approximately 50 wheelchairs over two days. We worked through a young and energetic group of Rotarians from Izmail.
In November, we returned with a team of eight to help with the next cycle of distributions of 50 more wheelchairs. Our trip began in Bucharest, Romania, where we are currently working with the Cismigiu Rotary Club on a new grant for work in and around Bucharest. We then traveled north to Barlad, Romania, to see the new HHI facility in Barlad that HHI is building to further its work in the countries that surround Romania. We also met with the Barlad Rotary Club, where we presented them with a gift from Sioux Falls Rotary West and a promise from District 5610, to help them fund a new elevator for the Children’s Hospital in Barlad.
The next day, our real adventure began by driving across the border into Ukraine. Izmail, a beautiful city of 100,000 inhabitants, sits by the banks of the Danube River at the very southern tip of Ukraine. It is currently the main port shipping center in Ukraine.
The Izmail Rotary Club, founded in 2016 through the Barlad, Romania Club, has 20 some members of young entrepreneurs and business executives who are eager for the war to end and to help to improve their city. We spent three nights and four days helping the Rotarians to fit wheelchairs for about 50 individuals. In recent months, there have been several drone attacks on Izmail, and we went to some of these sights to see the damage from the bombings. Sirens going off, is now a new norm in anticipation of more drone strikes. Fortunately for us, we were still 500 miles SE of the war zone.