Appeal to Irish people to help save lives of children in Ukraine war zone

A senior cardiologist at the General Hospital in Kharkiv, Eastern Ukraine has made a desperate video appeal to the Irish people this Christmas for help to fund and extend life-saving heart surgeries on children in the region.

With support from Adi Roche’s Chernobyl Children International (CCI) aid agency, Dr Igor Polivenok made the appeal on behalf of the thousands of children born every year with genetic heart defects. The hospital is the only surviving hospital in Eastern Ukraine that can provide these operations in an area with a population of almost 15 million.

Dr Polivenok said, “We are struggling to provide valuable care to these children with heart defects whose families are not able to buy even basics like food, not to mention fund the heart surgery for their child. This situation is now a humanitarian disaster. It is about the right to life and accessible medical care for children.”