Vancouver Island team fundraising to build a breastmilk bank for babies in Ukraine
CTV
A humanitarian group from the West Shore of Vancouver Island is embarking on a new mission to create a regional breastmilk bank in the west of Ukraine.
A humanitarian group from the West Shore of Vancouver Island is embarking on a new mission to create a regional breastmilk bank in the west of Ukraine.
The team has made three trips to the country since the war with Russia began. The result of those trips brought hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical and food aid to the people of Ukraine, but during the team's last trip to the war-torn country, they were taken aback by what they experienced.
In a children’s hospital in Ivano-Frankivsk, the team saw dozens of premature babies in the hospital’s neonatal unit.
“These babies are two pounds, three pounds, four pounds in weight,” said Bruce Brown, a member of the humanitarian team. “You could not really prepare yourself.”
It was a neonatal unit under immense pressure, overwhelmed by premature births.
“Born often as a result of stress-related childbirths that their mothers are having to deal with, due to the war,” said Brown.
Before the war, the hospital used to see on average four premature births per month. Since the war began, it now sees an average of 40 per month.
