Humanitarian assistance

The Office of Defense Cooperation has sponsored several humanitarian assistance projects throughout Ukraine in the past few years. Recently, a tuberculosis clinic in Odesa was renovated with funds provided by this office.

On 1 SEP ODC representatives Maj. John Kershaw and Alexei Muzalyov visited the opening ceremony of a Burn Center in Odessa Ukraine. The Burn Center was a Humanitarian Assistance (HA) Project, that was initiated about four years ago. It took a year to develop a design for the project and then another two years for actual construction. Besides ODC staff many other people were involved in execution of the project to include, HA Coordinators in EUCOM (Paula Battistoni, LTC Charles Brady, Vicki Landes) an engineer from the U.S., (Craig Bradford) the contracting officer from Naples Italy (Philip Lamade), the Mayor of Odessa and his staff, representatives of Odessa City Health Administration, construction company "London Design Interiors" and many others.

The facility was much needed in the area due to the high rate of burn incidents. The old Burn Center was completely inadequate in terms of sanitary conditions and in terms of size. There were some unofficial reports that anti sanitary conditions caused several deaths of patients and could cause many more. The new clinic will save many lives and give hope to the burn victims and their relatives not only in the city of Odessa, but to the whole Southern Region.

The citizens of Odessa, represented by the Burn Center’s medical personnel, Health Administration of the city and Mayor’s office expressed their high appreciation for all the work and funds donated by the US Government. This act of assistance will go a long way not only treating people, but also building friendship and cooperation between two nations.

Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC)
Chief: Lt Colonel D. Lee Gabel (U.S. Army)
Contact: 380-44-490-1940/490-7292 (fax)
25 Lesi Ukrainky Blvd
Kyiv 01133 Ukraine