VIDEO | In Ukraine, peaches as a gift to the Novohradkivka clinic

Specialists sent by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) arrive in the village and in 22 other regions

Photo: Matteo De Mayda

NOVOHRADKIVKA (Ukraine) – The ambulance turns between fields of sunflowers, leaving the Black Sea behind. In the area of Novohradkivka, a village in the Odessa region, specialists in gynaecology, obstetrics and cardiology had never been seen. 

Perhaps it is paradoxical but the home care service, to support local clinics with a pediatrician and general practitioner, only arrived with the worsening of the war with Russia. “Ours are ‘mobile clinics’, made up of gynecologists, nurses and cardiologists” explains Sergey Petrov, 40 years old, obstetrician, gynecologist and sonographer. “We reach the most isolated villages to help local people, who are often elderly and unable to travel.” Sergey is the doctor behind the wheel of the “mobile clinic” which reaches Novohradkivka a couple of times a month. “It is an area that has not been directly affected by the conflict”, explains the doctor, “but which is more vulnerable than others from the point of view of the availability of services, be it gynecological visits, ultrasounds or echocardiograms”.

The “mobile clinics” were born in 2022, after the start of the offensive by Moscow’s armed forces. The attempt is at the same time to respond to the emergency, stand alongside the victims of the conflict and fill a void that already existed before. In Novohradkivka and so in other 22 of the 24 regions of Ukraine, the service in the villages is supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), a multilateral organization committed on a social and health level, with a attention to sexual and reproductive health rights, gender equality and the fight against domestic violence.

We have 28 ‘mobile clinics‘” explains Maryna Semenenko, 26 years old, a UNFPA worker. “The aim is to promote access to services for residents in the most remote areas, locals, displaced by war, people with disabilities or victims of abuse, whether linked to the ongoing conflict or not”.

According to estimates from the International Organization for Migration, at the end of 2023 the Ukrainians who had left their homes but not the country as a result of the war were around three million and 700 thousand. In four out of five cases, they had already moved for over a year. According to Semenenko, in a difficult social and security situation, “in some cases the ‘mobile clinics’ can even improve care services compared to the past, networking with the national health system and thanks to the support of other countries and donors ”.

Take the case of Novohradkivka. The visits are also made thanks to a contribution from Aecid, an acronym for Agencia española de cooperation internacional which today is clearly visible on the side of the ambulance. Svetlana Mikulic, the pediatrician at the clinic, explains how the organization works: “As soon as we have confirmation of the arrival of the ‘clinics’ we publish a notice and open to bookings; there is a lot of demand and so the calendar fills up immediately.” Today the visits continue all morning. A few meters from the clinic a farmer has set up a stall. He sells peaches, or rather he doesn’t: he gives them to doctors who have arrived from Odessa.