Danish Refugee Council teams distributing thermal covers to Dnipro’s affected population in Ukraine. | © DRC
Some patients are still hospitalized. The European Humanitarian Response Capacity (EHRC) operated by Atlas Logistique (one of HI's operational units, specialized in Emergency Logistics) immediately mobilized their team to help humanitarian actors such as the Ukraine-Dutch Charitable Foundation, SMART Medical Aid, and the Danish Refugee Council to rapidly respond to the emergency.
In the immediate aftermath of this tragic attack, the European Union (EU), through the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, and Atlas Logistique mobilized its team to rapidly respond to the needs of their partners to deliver life-saving aid to victims. Among others, the Ukraine-Dutch Charitable Foundation SMART Medical Aid, which has been using the EU’s and Atlas Logistique’s common logistics services for six months, provided emergency support to the Regional Medical Center of Family Healthcare. This facility admitted heavily wounded people after the missile strike, including many injured children. Thanks to the reactivity of the EU and Atlas Logistique’s hub, SMART Medical Aid was able to deliver emergency health equipment to the medical facility, such as an anesthesia station for the pediatric intensive care unit, breathing circuits and specialized heaters for liquids and blood. This equipment was used to save the lives of intensive care unit patients.
Iryna Rybinkina, founder of the Ukraine-Dutch Charitable Foundation SMART Medical Aid: "I'd like to give special thanks to the European Union and Atlas Logistique team for the prompt response to our request. Usually warehouse delivery takes three days from the moment a request is made. But in a situation where urgent assistance was required, our partner accelerated all internal procedures. We've been cooperating with the EU and Atlas Logistique for half a year now. We've provided all the necessary equipment to eight perinatal centers in Ukraine with the help of this logistics system".
Dnipro’s local authorities received over 400 statements of loss or damage to accommodation. People are left on the street in the middle of winter. Windows are shattered in many nearby apartments. As for SMART Medical Aid organization, many other operational partners have been supported by the EU and Atlas Logistique for the shelling immediate response such as the World Health Organization (WHO), through withdrawal of emergency medicine stocks, or the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), through shipment of thermal covers and hygienic kits. Over the next weeks, these organizations, thanks to our logistical hubs, will continue providing humanitarian assistance to the affected families in Ukraine.
The European Humanitarian Response Capacity (EHRC) is a set of operational tools designed by the European Union to fill the gaps in the response to humanitarian disasters and crises.
The EHRC is based on 3 pillars:
1. Common logistical services for the benefit of humanitarian actors (air and land transport operations, warehousing systems)
2. Stockpiles of emergency items in strategic areas around the world;
3. Deployment of expertise, mainly in the health and humanitarian logistics sectors.
Since April 2022, Atlas Logistique - one of Handicap International's operational units specializing in emergency logistics - has been operating in Ukraine through the first pillar of the EHRC. The EHRC and Atlas Logistique have thus provided joint logistics services to humanitarian partners: warehouses and logistics facilities in Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Mykolaev and a road transport system for humanitarian assistance, particularly in hard-to-reach areas where the needs are greatest.
