News

Hospices of Hope’s mission is to support the development of palliative care services in South and East Europe. When the war in Ukraine began in 2022, our initial response was to provide emergency support for our colleagues in the Ivano-Frankivsk group of hospices.

Now, 3 years on, and sadly the war continues. Thanks to your generosity during this period we have been able to help by funding:

• An ambulance to transport patients from war-torn areas in the east to safer regions in the west
• Generators to ensure power remains available during blackouts
• Essential medicines that were in critically short supply
• Supported the running costs of a 30 bed hospice and their home-care team

Your support has also helped Ukrainian refugees in Romania and Moldova through our partners. Together, we have provided shelter and essential care for displaced families at Copaceni children’s centre near Bucharest, ensured palliative care for refugee cancer patients at Hospice Casa Speranței in Bucharest, delivered medical aid to refugees arriving at the Moldovan border through our partner’s day care centres in Orhei and Chișinău.

Our long-term vision is to help establish a sustainable hospice movement throughout Ukraine. An estimated 600,000 people—including soldiers—are in urgent need of palliative care. However, with funding cuts, medical staff shortages, and the ongoing war, providing this essential care remains a significant challenge.

Our efforts continue, and since our last update, we’ve made important progress:

• Expanding Palliative Care in Kyiv: In January, we rented a clinic building in Kyiv for Svoyi, allowing them to expand their home-care services and launch outpatient and day-care services. We have also funded key staff, including a full-time doctor, Dr. Zoia Maksymova (an experienced palliative care specialist), a second full-time nurse, and a medical secretary.
• New Palliative Care Service in Ivano-Frankivsk: We have secured office space within the Chamber of Commerce and are applying for a license to establish a new charitable home-care service in the city and surrounding areas. This initiative will be led by Dr. Iryna Slugotska, our first contact in Ivano-Frankivsk.
• Training the Next Generation of Palliative Care Nurses: We are running an online training program for 40 nurses in Ivano-Frankivsk, featuring expert instructors from the UK and Romania. The course is being recorded and uploaded to an online platform, ensuring it can be used to train nurses across Ukraine.

These are just the first steps in what we hope will be a far-reaching transformation of palliative care in Ukraine—where the need is greater than ever.

How You Can Help

Your support has already made an incredible impact, but there is still so much more to do. As we take these next steps, we need your help to:

– Fund essential medical staff and equipment
– Expand the home-care services to reach more patients
– Train more healthcare professionals to provide compassionate, specialised care

Every donation will help us to make progress, and to bring comfort and dignity to those facing life-limiting illness. Please consider making a gift today to help us continue this vital work.