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Our projects
Our current projects are focused on first aid, evacuation, and definitive care of war casualties in Ukraine. As Ukraine bravely fights Russia’s brutal unprovoked invasion, our team around the world works 24/7 to help save as many lives in Ukraine as possible. We are the only volunteer-run charity solely focused on medical causes for Ukraine. Since 24 February 2022, we have raised over $9 million in donations from individuals, businesses and non-profits all over the world.
Tactical first aid supplies
Leleka’s core activity is providing high-quality modern tactical first aid supplies to Ukrainian defenders, field doctors and emergency teams.
Those are individual first aid kits for Ukrainian soldiers, as well as fully stocked medical backpacks and other rare devices for front-line medics.
A single backpack is equipped to save 10+ lives by treating all major types of combat trauma. Often times, field medics are the only source of medical help for civilians in the war zone.
Our long-established relationships with a few dozen suppliers in the US and Europe, combined with an utmost efficient logistics, allows us to deliver necessary first aid fast (1.5-2 weeks from order to receipt by end users) and at optimal cost.
To balance delivery time, composition and cost of first aid kits and medical backpacks, we prefer buying pouches and components in bulk, either directly from manufacturers or from large distributors. We only buy original supplies of high quality from verified suppliers. This approach gives us flexibility of sourcing components from various countries based on price and availability. Further, our team in Ukraine assembles the kits immediately before transferring to the end users.
Our team on the ground collects information about needs directly from front-line medics, therefore we always know which supplies are most needed and where from first hands. Our volunteers validate each request to ensure help is directed to the hottest spots first. We are doing this together with our long-time partners in Ukraine: volunteers from Saving Lives in Ukraine, Medicine of the National Home Front and other groups who have a lot of experience assembling and delivering these kits as well as training people to correctly use them. All components of our first-aid kits and medical backpacks are carefully chosen and tested in the field.
Since February 2022, we have supplied over 10,000 medical backpacks and over 18,000 individual first aid kits to the front lines.
Medical evacuation vehicles
It is widely considered that a critical injury casualty has better chances of survival if they get to the surgery within an hour (known as Golden Hour rule). Therefore, swift medical evacuation is key to survival of the wounded soldiers. Still, a regular ambulance is not able to support evacuation from remote locations because of road conditions and heavy fighting.
Within our medevac for Ukraine project, we purchase ambulances and off-road vehicles in Europe, refurbish and equip them to combat medical evacuation needs and transfer to the units located in the hottest spots in Eastern and Southern Ukraine.
Hospital equipment
Given the scale and brutality of Russian attacks, Ukrainian hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties and heavily lack modern equipment and supplies to treat severe bombing and shelling wounds.
Our dedicated team works directly with hospitals to identify their needs and purchase critical devices, either on our own or jointly with partners.
This includes VAC devices, portable ultrasound and X-ray machines, surgical supplies and many more.
Ukrainian hospitals are flooded with wounded. Together with The Institute for Emergency Medicine, Poland, we are procuring essential items for basic emergency treatment.
Please help us purchase X-Ray machines, orthopedic and surgical consumables. 100% of your donation goes to Ukrainian hospitals!
Backpack of Life
Our foundation is proud to implement the "Backpacks of Life" project, made possible by the generous financial and organizational support of EPAM Ukraine. In 2024, the company will allocate $300,000 to purchase and equip 300 medical backpacks. This initiative is expected to help save the lives of approximately 3,000 wounded individuals.
Our cooperation also includes an information campaign aimed at educating the civilian population about the vital role of medics in war and the importance of first aid.
Maria Nazarova, Anastasia Podobailo, Mykola Yasinenko, Anton Storchak, and other esteemed medical professionals and instructors have become the project's ambassadors and the heroes featured in media and social network publications.
Generators for healthcare facilities
In partnership with the Yellow Blue Force Foundation, we are raising funds to supply electrical power generators to local hospitals in Ukrainian cities.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the russians have been targeting the Ukrainian power grid. This has resulted in intermittent power outages. Recently, the attacks have intensified, as the aggressors have embarked on an explicit strategy of freezing the Ukrainian population to death over winter. Ukraine’s power generation capacity is being systematically destroyed.
The goal of this project is to provide autonomous power generation capacity to local hospitals and clinics. These are the healthcare institutions that most Ukrainian civilians depend on for their healthcare, including outpatient facilities, urgent and emergency care.
Past projects
Evacuation vehicles for medics saving
lives on the frontline
Leleka Foundation, in partnership with the Yellowblue Force Foundation and with the financial support of The Pfizer Foundation, has delivered 11 specially equipped Toyota vehicles for the evacuation of the wounded to medics of various units.
These vehicles have been successfully evacuating injured individuals from the war zone for several months now.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to our partners for supporting our life-saving mission!
Future projects
We are working on projects to support soldiers returning from the war and their families in their transition back to peaceful lives. Ukraine has not been at war in many decades and there is little experience and expertise in treating PTSD and other psychological trauma. We hope to be able to help.
We are also developing projects to help disadvantaged and sick children in Ukraine.
Follow our Facebook page to get notified of any updates on the ongoing and new projects. You can contact us with any requests or help by making a donation in many ways.
Contact us
We are currently receiving an enormous volume of messages, emails and phone calls. We are reviewing all of them, but it may take us longer than usual to respond.
Thank you for your patience!
Leleka Foundation, 380 Hamilton Ave #291, Palo Alto, CA 94302, United States
+1 202 929-1975