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In late March, the Saving Lives humanitarian project and Protez Hub will launch Knowledge Base: Protez Hub, an online educational platform for specialists of medical institutions and prosthetic companies. This resource is unique for Ukraine: it is fully Ukrainian-language, and access to the materials is free.

The Saving Lives humanitarian project, founded by Metinvest Group in coordination with Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, is operating since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. During this time it has grown from an initiative to prevent a food crisis to a large-scale mission with several areas of activities. One of them is the rehabilitation program. It consists of two projects: Unbreakable Mom (psychological assistance to mothers with children) and prosthetics for military and civilian Ukrainians who have lost limbs.

To ensure that as many Ukrainians as possible can receive quality prosthetics services, Saving Lives signed a memorandum of cooperation with Protez Hub. As part of the cooperation, the partners deal with organizational and documentary issues. Among other things, the cooperation involves the creation of a Ukrainian-language online educational platform for specialists in the field of prosthetic limbs and related rehabilitation. The main objective of this resource is to improve understanding of the process of rehabilitation of a person with an amputation from the moment of injury to the moment of effective use of the prosthesis.

The platform will include five courses on care, rehabilitation, prosthetics, and psychological aspects of an injury that led to the amputation of one or more limbs. So far, dozens of Ukrainian-language video lectures have been created that explain in a logical sequence how to prepare for prosthetic limbs, identify needs and capabilities, train with a prosthesis, etc. In addition to the lectures, specialists will be able to download and use in practice recommendations, questionnaires, scales, programs and other auxiliary materials.

Since the beginning of the war, the Saving Lives initiative has been helping those who need it most. To overcome new challenges, we are expanding our mission by introducing a large-scale prosthetics and rehabilitation program for wounded veterans and civilians, and supporting the creation of a specialized portal. The online educational platform will enable every domestic specialist dealing with amputations to gain a systematic understanding of all rehabilitation processes and apply their knowledge in practice, - Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Group, said.

FRUITFUL COOPERATION
The program of Saving Lives and Protez Hub includes preparation for prosthetics, fitting of prostheses, follow-up in Ukrainian clinics, physical and psychological rehabilitation. Currently, 34 Ukrainians are receiving assistance.

The goal of Protez Hub has always been and remains the sustainable development of the limb prosthetics and accompanying rehabilitation area in Ukraine. We sought to create interesting, useful and consistent online courses that would help all participants in the process of restoring a person with an amputation to understand what to look for at each stage. Using foreign and domestic experience, we managed to create a resource that is even more relevant for Ukraine because of the war, - Antonina KUMKA, project manager and president of Protez Hub, said.

Prosthetics specialists note that such online educational platform is extremely necessary, as Ukraine has not had such resources before.

At one time, I was faced with the lack of Ukrainian websites where one could get information on how to prepare a patient for prosthetics. Active preparation for prosthetics is quite important, so this educational platform will help professionals to understand how best to help patients who have lost their limbs. The project meets the needs of the present time, where everyone involved in prosthetics will be able to find professional answers to their questions for free, - Natalia MYLA, a physical therapist and lecturer shared her opinion.

In addition to professionals, the courses will be available in an introductory format for relatives, friends and people who have lost limbs.

Read the stories of Ukrainians who have already received prostheses from Saving Lives and Protez Hub and are undergoing rehabilitation here.