Victoria Furdela: “We keep working so that patients with diabetes have everything they need”

Victoria Furdela, Associate Professor of the Department of Paediatrics № 2, teaches foreign students and takes care of children with diabetes in the Ternopil region. Today, she is the head of the headquarters for providing assistance to patients with this disease.

“I remember very well the first day of the war – February 24. I just had a class with foreign students. The class was held online, because at that time many students left Ukraine due to disturbing news, but also many remained in the city. It was impossible to think about anything else, because everyone was in a state of shock, reading the news. Those students who did not have time to leave asked to cancel the class so that they could settle their affairs and go to the border for evacuation. In the following days, the state of shock continued. No one knew what to expect. Later came the understanding that sitting and doing nothing is not a way out of the situation. Inactivity and reading the news led to a difficult psychological state. I decided to engage in different activities to divert my attention from the news and be useful. Since I work with children with diabetes, I received many requests from parents who could not find insulin in pharmacies,” says Victoria Furdela.

During the week, she managed to initiate humanitarian aid for diabetes patients. First of all, she wrote to those students who had already returned home, namely to the Poles. Victoria Furdela appealed to the 4th-6th year students to collect help for children with diabetes.

“All of them had practical classes and practical training at the diabetes school, which I supervise. They were well versed in this topic and the needs of patients. When I applied, I was pleasantly surprised by how actively the students responded. Piotr Ostrovsky, who is our graduate, delivered the largest load. He is currently undergoing a residency at a hospital in Szczecin. He established contact with the head of the Szczecin-Starograd community of Ukrainians in Poland, Ivan Syrnyk. With joint efforts, we managed to collect the necessary help for the military and for the children. It was then that we received the largest batch of insulin. It is nice that the representatives of this community paid for the delivery of the goods to our university.

I was pleased with this help, but the question of space and storage arose. Then I asked the Vice-Rector for Science, Education and Clinical Affairs Stepan Zaporozhan to create conditions for activity. Thus, we were given a classroom at the department of medical biochemistry, where we installed two refrigerators. It was all organized very quickly. Mothers of children with diabetes from NGO Dia-DIM Ternopil Nataliia Sapsai, Iryna Horoshko, Alla Podoliak joined the work, and the headquarters for assistance to diabetes patients has started its work,” adds Victoria Furdela.

And the process started – help began to come from other students: Yustyna Ohal and Arkadiusz Lesniak-Moszyk, Maciej Mechnikowski, Vojtej Wavczyk, Hubert Mikosza. Sisters Dagmara Eva and Patricia Diana Mruz, together with the student activists in the city of Opole (Poland) from the IFMSA-Poland Opole Local Committee organized the collection of more than 10 aid packages for our insulin-dependent patients, medicines for newborns and medical supplies for the military.

Svitlana Duda from Italy, a native of the Ternopil region, who is also ill with diabetes, volunteered to help too. She has lived in this country for 25 years and understands well the needs of children with diabetes. Since the beginning of the war, she and the volunteer centre DeeBee Italia and Gruppo Farmacie IGEA SRL have donated more than 300 kg of medical supplies for patients with diabetes (insulins, glucometers, test strips, insulin pens and needles, lancets, etc.). Part of the consignments with bandages, tourniquets, antibiotics, painkillers, levothyroxine, emergency medicines, thermal blankets and other medical supplies was repeatedly transferred to the humanitarian centre at the university, which provides assistance to soldiers on the front lines and hospitals in the eastern regions of Ukraine.

“This woman helped us even before the war, and with the beginning of the full-scale invasion she organized the community of Rome for help. Every week she sent us several boxes of medicines and medical supplies. The parcels contained everything needed not only for diabetics, but also tourniquets, dressing materials, thermal blankets. When the diabetes headquarters started working, parents of young patients themselves volunteered to help me. To this day, we receive aid and immediately distribute it. During this period, more than 200 children of the Ternopil region and as many throughout Ukraine received hand-to-hand or mail assistance from us. Many immigrants took advantage of the headquarters’ help, receiving insulin, strips, glucometers and other things from us.

Not only our students helped, my friends and colleagues from abroad also responded and we started receiving donations from charitable organizations from Poland: Fundacja Dla Dzieci z Cukrzycą and Nakarm Cukrzyka, from the Czech Republic: DIA maminky a nej tatínkové – DIAMANT and from Ukraine: Charitable Foundation “Help to the participants of the ATO of Ternopil”.

In fact, six months of the war has passed, but we still receive requests and calls asking for help. The phone is constantly ringing. When the headquarters started functioning, I realized that I was fulfilling my mission and helping my country, patients, and the army. I feel like I’m involved in something important – and it’s helped me deal with the enormous stress. Gradually, the situation in Ternopil improved, but the first month of the war was a shock for people and for medicine as logistics and supplies were broken. Accordingly, our supporters helped to cope with the problem, for which we are very grateful,” says Victoria Furdela sincerely.

Of course, as long as the war continues and concerned people are able to support us, help for diabetes patients will go to the needy families.

TNMU Press Secretary, Yanina Chaikivska.

Photographs by Mykola Vasylechko and from the personal archive of Victoria Furdela.