In Italy, as in many other European countries, attention towards the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine caused by the Russian invasion has decreased with greater coverage being given by newspapers to the Gaza crisis and the resulting “psychological fatigue” towards the continuous images of suffering.
This has not, however, discouraged the group of doctors and humanitarian workers belonging to the International Rescue Programme to take action. Led by an anaesthetist from Padua, Mauro Migliore, a group of volunteers have organized a nine-person humanitarian motorbike rally to demonstrate Italian support for the suffering caused by the war.
The bikers left Palermo on May 11, crossing Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine, to reach Kyiv on May 16 – a route of over 3,400 kilometers (2,125 miles). The team took with them backpacks full of medical supplies that included: more than two hundred medical items such as compression/hemostatic bandages and tourniquets to stop bleeding, catheter needles, products to treat burns and trauma, splints and bandages, along with material for transporting and monitoring the wounded.
During a stop in Lviv they donated medical instruments to the San Nicola First Medical Union Institute. On arrival at their final destination, the Ukrainian capital, after their five-day trek, they were able to hand over the surgical instruments were donated to the Pediatric and the Okhmatdyt Childrens’ Hospitals as well as Kyiv’s Shalimov Institute of Surgery and Transplantology.
The delegation of motor bikers was officially received at the Italian Embassy to Kyiv by the Ambassador Carlo Formosa.
“We came here to bring valid help, surgical instruments useful in a context like war. We hope that others, encouraged by our example, will also do something” Migliore said.
The trip was made possible thanks to the fundraising coordinated by Marco Margotti of the Rotary Club of Verona Nord, together with the association “Liberi Oltre le Illusioni”, with a donation from the Banca Agricola Popolare di Sicilia, the contribution of the association of Italian Rotarian Motorcyclists (AMRI), the participation of the State Police Moto Clubs of Reggio Calabria, Naples and Venice, and some private sponsors such as the Global Car rental company in Verona, which provided a support vehicle for the motorcyclists along the journey and also transported the medical material.