By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JAN. 20, 2023 | The reports we see about the war in Ukraine come to us in the warmth and safety of our home, through television, and through our social media platforms. It’s hard to imagine how terrible conditions are there. The photos and the videos are horrible. They touch our hearts. It’s been gratifying to see many people in our country reach out to help the Ukrainians.
Describing conditions in that country this week was Kristy Engel, a pediatric nurse practitioner and global consultant for Health International Ministries in the Ukraine, who is based in Atlanta. She spoke to the Gwinnett Rotary Club.
What hit us in her report was simply the depth of the problems even far away from war zones. She pointed out that Ukraine sits on the 50th geographic parallel, at about the same latitude as Winnipeg or Regina in Canada.
She described working in an improvised and unheated health clinic in a vacant school building, in weather so cold that you can see your breath when inside. “It was about 15 degrees outside, a little warmer inside. But we didn’t have electricity except for about two hours a day, and that could be in the middle of the night. So people would get up at all hours to recharge their devices, pump and heat water, flush the commodes, etc. I would dress in layers, yet I was still cold nearly all the time there. I had on gloves, but my fingertips would be so cold that I couldn’t feel much.”
Most of the people she sees in the health clinics are women and children, since men between 15-65 are off in war areas. That also means the agricultural area she visited had no men to work the crops last year, and hence no income, adding to the miseries.
Engel
Consider that most Ukraine buildings use circulating water through radiators for heat. So without electricity to circulate water to the radiators, there is no heat in the building. More recently wood stoves have been used, if they have them, for heat. This creates another problem: trees cut down for stove wood were planted after the leveling of forests in World War II, adding other problems like erosion.
Another problem: trafficking of displaced youth as they crossed the borders to seek refuge. Who would have thought of this criminal behavior? Many parents have seen their youth disappear in this way.
Weather conditions in Ukraine were far different from what Engel had been used to, since she has spent many of her years in Caribbean countries, where it is seldom cold. She is trained as a pediatric nurse practitioner and holds a post-master’s certificate in international nutrition and Faith Community Nursing.
Engel served for three years in Haiti and 12 years in the Dominican Republic, where she led mobile medical clinics and relief efforts following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Currently, she is based in Atlanta because of its airport. She regularly travels to countries in need of health assessments, ongoing education, health team visits, or other forms of collaboration, such as the Ebola crisis in 2014 and the current war in Ukraine. She works through Baptist groups.
Engel leaves January 31 for another mission trip to the western Ukraine, far from the war zones, to help people displaced from the war areas, who are suffering in their own way. Ukraine is a far different country in many ways during this war from those of us in Georgia in the safety of our warm homes. Please consider helping Ukraine out.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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