06.02.2023

Metinvest's Saving Lives initiative: humanitarian aid, prosthetic treatment and rehabilitation of war-affected Ukrainians

MMR.UA

The Saving Lives humanitarian initiative has been launched by Metinvest Group in concert with the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation since the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is the company's response to the needs of the country, regions and ordinary Ukrainians affected by the war.

Currently, the initiative focuses on three areas: provision of humanitarian aid, prosthetic treatment and physical rehabilitation for Ukrainians injured in the war, and psychological rehabilitation of women and children. The Do It Together Foundation raises funds from international donors.

Since March 2022, Saving Lives has been helping Ukrainians with food and essentials and providing medicines and equipment to hospitals. For this purpose, it has arranged two hubs in Poland that collect, sort, and prepare bulk cargoes for shipment. In coordination with the national authorities, they are delivered to the areas where this support is most needed. The assistance reaches primarily vulnerable categories in Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Kirovohrad, Kherson, and Odessa regions.

In autumn 2022, Saving Lives joined the Unbreakable Mom project of the Masha Foundation to take care of emotional health of women and children affected by the war. Metinvest's female employees, as well as wives and children of the company's workers who suffer from the trauma of war undergo the rehabilitation programme to improve their emotional wellbeing.

In early December 2022, Saving Lives tied up with Protez Hub, a prosthetics support project in Ukraine, to launch a large-scale programme on prosthetic treatment and rehabilitation of the Ukrainian military and civilians. The programme covers preparations for the prosthetic treatment, installation of prostheses and follow-up care in Ukrainian clinics, as well as physical and psychological rehabilitation in special health resort centres in the west of Ukraine.

The Saving Lives project was created to help people restore physical and psychological health for the sake of our future. The project helps people survive by providing food, essentials and medicine. Saving Lives provides psychological support for women and children, as well as helps with prosthetic treatment for the soldiers who sustained injuries in the war. We will keep doing everything we can to ensure that help is provided to those who need it most.
YURIY RYZHENKOV
Chief Executive Officer of Metinvest, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Do It Together

Saving Lives is distinct from other projects, having several important features. The project works closely with the Ukrainian municipalities and military administrations, which know the exact needs of the residents living in close proximity to the frontline areas. Thus, Ukrainians can receive the assistance they need most.

In addition, the project specialists understand the expectations of the European donors and what drives them. With this in mind, they could develop important initiatives that can attract donors.

Another distinctive feature is Metinvest's well-developed infrastructure abroad. Due to good logistics and assistance of the Company's employees it was possible to arrange the delivery of humanitarian aid from Europe to Ukraine within the shortest time. Saving Lives project even helps other European companies with logistics to deliver the assistance to Ukraine.

The expertise of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation which has been helping Ukrainians since 2014 also stands in good stead.

Saving Lives raises funds from abroad. To promote its initiatives, the project regularly publishes reports and stories of its beneficiaries in social media, on Metinvest's website and its portal.

The project ambassadors are Europeans sitting on the Saving Lives Programme Board. They focus on foreign audiences, build the project's reputation, and engage donors. Metinvest's foreign employees and partners have joined the drive to bring in more benefactors.

Ultimately, Saving Lives has become one of the country's biggest humanitarian initiatives, having already helped over 400,000 Ukrainians. Since the war's outbreak, the project has delivered more than 4,000 tonnes of food products and essentials and brought over €240,000 worth of medicines, equipment and consumables to Ukrainian hospitals from abroad.

Nearly 200 companies and about 300 benefactors from across the globe have joined the initiative. They are from Germany, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Greece, the UAE, and other countries. The total amount of aid received from donors has exceeded €2.3 million.

To date, the prosthetic treatment programme has supported 28 Ukrainians, with seven of them having received training prostheses, and the rest undergoing treatment. In addition, Saving Lives and the Protez Hub project are developing a Ukrainian-language online platform to train prosthetists who care about amputees.

Moreover, the project has helped 140 women and their children overcome traumatic experiences and improve their emotional health.

Saving Lives will continue to care about Ukrainians in the wartime and after Ukraine's victory as the country's infrastructure and housing will need rebuilding, and this will require support and expertise of socially responsible businesses.

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