Nataliya Lisnychuk: “The most difficult part of volunteering is that some of your phone contacts may never answer your call again”

The war caught everyone by surprise and broke all our plans. Nataliya Lisnychuk, who is Deputy Rector for International Affairs at I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University and Head of the Volunteer Centre, mentions that even despite all the news and inner feeling of the inevitability of war, it was impossible to be fully prepared for it. “My brain did not want to accept the information that a full-scale invasion had begun. It was impossible to explain logically: how can war be compatible with the development of science in various fields, civilization, humanity principles in the 21st century? I understood that it happened, that people were dying, but subconsciously I constantly denied the fact of the war. I cannot remember what I did and what I thought about on February 24, my consciousness erased the memory of this day. I remember that I came to work and thoughts flashed in short fragments: to take my mother out… to call relatives abroad to take out my little granddaughters… And emptiness,” Nataliya Lisnychuk shares her memories.

She adds that on February 26-27 she finally realized that something had to be done, that a new reality had arrived in which we had to live. “Just these days, the rector of TNMU, professor Mykhaylo Korda, had the idea to create a volunteer centre on the basis of our university. He called me and informed me that I will be responsible for the work of the volunteer centre, that it is necessary to create a website that will display the activities of the centre and make the reporting as transparent as possible. Together with their co-worker Zoriana Vivchar, the two of them worked on the concept of the web-page, logistics, and simultaneously created invoices, according to which we still process the arrival and delivery of humanitarian aid. Anton Chernetskyi, who is responsible for the administration of the web page at the university, joined the creation of the site. I believe that we have achieved our goal. In fact, all our work is displayed from the first days of March until today on this website (https://ua.vc.tdmu.edu.ua/home).

But before all this, there was a tearful communication with our foreign partners, who sent us letters of support every day. We did not ask for anything, but only informed that a war had begun in our country. I was once again convinced that personal contacts and long-term cooperation are a significant asset of every person, institution, city and country,” Nataliya Lisnychuk says.

The first large shipment came from Ukrainians living in the United Kingdom and concerned British citizens. “Halyna Kosynska, who is the head of the International Assistance Headquarters for Ukrainians and the Ukrainian restaurant “Prosperity” in London, united our diaspora and the British. She does a very important and necessary job. The first 22-ton consignment came from them. I still remember how we unloaded it manually, lining up in a “live” chain. Everyone was tired, but we knew that it would give an opportunity to help many.

Within a week or two of since the beginning of the war, all our partners from North America, Poland, Germany, Austria, Romania, the UK, Italy, and Georgia started sending humanitarian aid.

Their help turned out to be life-saving, as many people immediately began to go to our city from the places where hostilities took place, where the occupation took place. People had to be given personal hygiene products, food, and clothes. In addition, the volunteer centre provided bed linen, blankets, and pillows to the displaced people so that people could spend the night. Many women with children and pregnant women came. By the way, many of them gave birth the very next day after their arrival, as the stress, travelling, bombing and shootings in their territories took their toll. We met mothers with small children, often infants. We picked up diapers, baby food, because the mothers lost milk because of their traumatizing experience. Not a single child who came to us was left without a smile. This was our motto: “A child must smile.” And we managed to do it thanks to partners, colleagues, and supporters. When we saw children’s smiles, it became a little easier for us,” Nataliya Lisnychuk says and sincerely smiles at the warm memories.

Almost two hundred people came to the TNMU volunteer centre every day. And so was for several months. Ternopil received a large number of residents from other regions. Our university housed more than 600 internally displaced persons in its dormitories. Requests for assistance to displaced persons were received daily from schools, territorial communities and village councils.

“We distributed 5 tons of high-quality clothes for adults and children. And it was important, because it was winter then, it snowed a few days after the start of the war, so everything came in handy. It was difficult, but we knew it was the least we could do because we were in a calm zone, able to go to work, and our university remained intact and operating at full capacity.

The work of the volunteer centre is mainly divided into 2 large parts: medical (medicines and medical devices) and actually humanitarian (food products, baby food, military food, clothing, personal hygiene products, etc.). Yurii Soroka, Mariia Starchenko, Nataliia Sanitska, Zoriana Vivchar, Iryna Ivanchuk, Sviatoslav Kundeus and other actively participate in the provision of actual humanitarian aid.

Thus, this work, 30 days a month without rest and breaks, with the acceptance of a large number of people, gave a certain emotional support and the feeling that you are doing an important thing. At the same time, we built trust in the world thanks to the fact that everything was accounted for and highlighted on the website, so that grant-givers could see that everything provided was received by the final recipients. In the first days of the war, the organization “America for Ukraine” (the founders are Petro Zankovetskyi, Mykhailo Mudryk, Felix Stanislavskyi) transferred 85 thousand US dollars. Then money started coming from the family of Dale Shumka (Edmonton, Canada), Yurii Kurashvili (New York, USA), IGeneX Inc., ID-FISH Technology Inc. (Milpitas, USA), our employees, priests and many others,” Ms. Natalia says.

In fact, there are several areas of work carried out by TNMU since the beginning of the war: assistance to the army, assistance to displaced persons, psychological support for internally displaced persons and residents of the city and region, provision of free dental services to soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and displaced persons, training in the basics of pre-medical care, settlement of temporarily displaced persons, courses on the study of the Ukrainian language.

“Many people from the Ternopil region provided help and did not even give their names, commenting that it was not important. I would like to express my appreciation to all foreign partners – Renata Blecha, Steven Tereshchenko-Schuster, German communities in various cities, administration and teachers of Tbilisi Medical Academy, Timo Ulrichs, doctor from Italy Carlo Pedrina, the English company “Cormack Consultancy Group”, which also encouraged the Hungarian association “Asociatia Ruscovan” to help. Thanks to the last two, we received 3 tons of much-needed medicines, which were supplied to military hospitals in Kharkiv, Mykolaiiv, Chernihiv, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia. There are many partners and you cannot list them all, but they are forever in our history on the centre’s website and in the news. No one is forgotten.

When Bucha and Irpin were freed, we sent humanitarian aid there as much as possible. I remember how we handed over food to children from an orphanage in Kharkiv Oblast. It is difficult to realize that because of the war, the children had nothing to eat. I remember sending blankets, quilts, medicine and food to the oncology dispensary in Chernihiv, which, in addition to oncology patients, received wounded soldiers and they had nothing to put them on, cover them and treat them.

The volunteer centre relied on the selfless work of people. It often happened that I could not open the door of the apartment, because my hands were shaking from the overload and I could not get the key into the lock. However, there was a feeling that you were doing what was necessary. This activity saved mental health – there was an overload, extreme fatigue and lack of time to read the news. It helped to survive all those horrors. It happened that for a few minutes after reading I would shut myself in the office, cry, and then wash myself with cold water and go on working,” says Nataliya Lisnychuk and pauses.

After thinking about it, she adds that the war will end with our victory unequivocally, but for many years the words will remain in her head as a refrain: “Good day! Glad to see you! Do you have children? How many people came with you? I’m glad you survived. Are you a nursing mother?” And it was sincere. She remembers the woman to whom she offered the last tube of toothpaste. Instead, the lady replied: “Thank you, but we still have half a tube. Give it to someone who needs it more and who doesn’t have it.”

“People from the occupied territories told how they were searched and their mobile phones were checked. God forbid I have such a situation, but if this happened in my life, I would first have to drown my phone so that none of the enemies could see the number of photos that our fighters from the frontline send standing by our boxes with a sticker “Together to victory! Volunteer Centre of Ternopil National Medical University” and the invoice, which they sign and add “Thank you! Glory to Ukraine!”. The most unfortunate thing is that many contacts that are in this phone will never answer again, will not pick up the phone. There were situations when I received a message about the delivery of the consignment, and two days later I was told that the person who sent this information had died. And there is a fear of calling the numbers of our defenders, because it is not known whether they are alive. For example, Olena, a combat medic with the codename “Mowgli”, has not been in touch for a long time, and I would like to ask her how we can help. And these moments are the most difficult, the most painful. Therefore, the number one priority in our work is our defenders, because our peace and victory depend on them. By the way, me and my whole family are in Ukraine and with Ukraine,” Nataliya Lisnychuk concludes.

TNMU Press Secretary, Yanina Chaikivska.

Photographs by Mykola Vasylechko.