NEWSWATCH Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières: Ukraine: Voices from the Front Line
[Ukraine: Voices from the Front Line – Doctors Without Borders – doctorswithoutborders.org – March 19, 2015]
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) relates experiences of civilians encountered during MSF’s humanitarian relief efforts in war-torn Ukraine.
Since May 2014, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has supported around 100 medical facilities on both sides of the front line in Ukraine with medical supplies, in addition to running an ongoing psychological support program. To address difficulties people in rural areas face accessing health care and medicines after more than ten months of conflict, MSF is also running mobile clinics in 25 locations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
One of the several testimonies is from a 72-year-old widow:
“In August our village was shelled. It felt so close … we had nowhere to run and my husband couldn’t move because he was disabled-he had no legs and was in a wheelchair. He told me I should hide in the cellar, like everyone else. But I didn’t, I couldn’t leave him. … We were ready to die together.
We were married … 51 years. He died suddenly last month of cerebral thrombosis. … I received … [about $43] in humanitarian aid in December. But I spent all my money on my husband’s funeral. …
I haven’t been receiving my pension for eight months, so I can’t buy medicines. I was given the drugs I needed for hypertension at the MSF clinic. I want this war to stop. What did we do wrong? We worked hard for all our lives ….”