KANSAS CITY, Mo — People in the Kansas City area are preparing to help those displaced by flooding in Ukraine after a dam was destroyed in the southern part of the country.
The country behind the attack on the Kakhovka dam is still under investigation. Ukraine and Russia are blaming each other for the attack.
Heart to Heart International is focused on aiding the thousands now without their homes.
“Anytime there are people who are displaced, you’re going to need to have additional resources,” said Kim Carroll, CEO of Heart to Heart International. “You’ll see the downstream effects. Maybe not directly in terms of the clinics, but we will see an increase in the number of people who need medical care.”
Heart to Heart currently has 15 portable medical clinics throughout Ukraine, most near the front lines of the war.
“What they don’t have right now are medicines, medical supplies and medical infrastructure," Carroll said. "So these clinics help to replace the medical infrastructure."
The units helped to aid at least 3,000 people in 2023. The team is expecting an influx in patients due to the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
“They’ll have water born illness. They’ll have stress related illness. They’ll have heat stroke. All of the same things you’d see anytime there’s a flood around the world,” Carroll said. “Complicated by the fact they are right on the front line, right near Russian occupied territories.”
Heart to Heart packed up supplies their partners on the ground have asked for: wheelchairs, crutches and now water purification tablets.
They are anticipating even more requests in the coming days.
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