A writer from Ukraine helps patients in MEDEVAC HUB Jasionka
He is usually the first person that patients from Ukraine meet in MEDEVAC HUB Jasionka. He explains to those arriving where they are, what the HUB looks like and how it works, and when they will be flown to hospitals in Europe for further treatment. Serhyj Syniuk – a writer and translator helps patients not only by translating from Polish into Ukrainian.
Not only medical help
Patients from all over Ukraine come to MEDEVAC HUB Jasionka. Most often the injured ones, but also oncology patients who currently cannot count on specialist treatment in their home country. The HUB is a stopover between a medical facility in Ukraine and the destination hospital in Europe that will accept the patient for further treatment.
The layover in Jasionka usually lasts 24 to 48 hours. During this time, patients are examined, receive meals, can count on psychological support and use the library, which is supervised by Serhyj Syniuk.
– The pain or states of anxiety, depression disappear and this makes the patient’s life easier here at HUB. It helps to survive the time until departure, to leave HUB more calmly and to calmly experience this air journey or journey on wheels – says Serhyj Syniuk.
– In our HUB, the library (…) serves several functions. The first is the function of providing information about the countries to which patients are going. The second function is the function of familiarizing with the language, because we carefully collect books in Polish and Ukrainian, not only of Polish authors. Here, for example, we have such a complete set of “Nigdy w życiu” by Katarzyna Grochola or “Upiorny legat” by Joanna Chmielewska, but also by Ukrainian authors, among whom I am very impressed by the fact that you have placed Bogdan Kołomijczuk, an outstanding author of crime novels from the beginning of the 20th century – he says.
To take your mind off things
At HUB, patients receive professional psychological help, but the staff also makes sure that patients simply feel good here and can forget for a moment about what they have been through and what awaits them.
– Sometimes patients ask us to give them a book, but we do not give the book away for ever, we just exchange it. Interestingly, Polish literature enjoys no less interest than Ukrainian literature. Of course, it is easier for us to get books in Polish. We received books in Ukrainian from publishers and librarians in Lviv. Almost every book has its own story, how it came to us at HUB – explains Syniuk
Bibliotherapy
Books have been used as a form of therapy since the beginning of the 20th century.
– For example, Winnie the Pooh is the child of bibliotherapy, as author, A. A. Milne, wrote this book during treatment after World War I – Syniuk reminds.
Since 2016, Poland celebrate National Bibliotherapy Day on November 14.
The only such place
MEDEVAC HUB Jasionka began operating on September 1, 2022 on the initiative and involvement of the health ministries of Poland and Ukraine. The center is run and managed by the Polish Center for International Aid Foundation (PCPM) and the PCPM’s Medical Rescue Team. This is the first and only such group in Poland certified by the World Health Organization. The team was created to provide assistance and save people in situations of humanitarian crises and natural disasters.
The medical HUB in Jasionka near Rzeszów (south-east Poland) is co-financed by the European Union under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. The HUB is supported by the IOM, the World Health Organization and the Podkarpackie Voivodeship. It provides a safe space for patients arriving from Ukraine before flying to a hospital in another European country for treatment. It is part of a wider medical evacuation programme for patients from Ukraine launched by the European Union.
