You're reading: Canada, U.S. to help Ukraine to develop its own prosthetic care system

Canadian and American prosthetic care specialists will share their experience with Ukrainian colleagues as part of the Ukraine Prosthetic Assistance Project to provide high-quality prosthetic care and rehabilitation in Ukraine.

“Many of those who need prosthetic care would like to do this abroad,
but this costs a lot. We started looking for ways how we can develop
prosthetic care in Ukraine. The main goal of the project is the transfer
of experience of U.S. and Canadian specialists to Ukrainian colleagues
and the provision of prosthetic care to candidates-participants of the
project,” Project Manager and representative of Euromaidan Canada at the
Ukrainian Canadian Congress in Toronto Antonina Kumka said at a press
conference in Kyiv on Monday.

She said that Ukrainian prosthetic care specialists from Kyiv,
Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kharkiv, Khmelnytsky and Lviv will be trained by
professionals from the United States and Canada who are doing this on
the voluntary basis. They took unpaid leave and arrived in Ukraine to
support the country.

Kumka said that at present, the project costs around CAD 55,000. Its
real cost is around CAD 200,000, which was reduced thanks to assistance
from various organizations. The Canada Ukraine Foundation,
Rehabilitation International and the Ukrainian Diaspora in Canada
provide financial support, the Social Policy Ministry of Ukraine
provides administrative support, and the Orthotech-Service provides
technical support.

Founder of U.S. ProsthetiKa and President of the International
Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (US ISPO) Jon Batzdorff said that
the conditions for prosthetic care could be created in Ukraine, as
obtaining the services abroad does not always bring the desired results.

“All the prosthetic appliances require technical support, they should
be installed properly and they should be maintained. Persons could
receive good prosthetic appliances abroad, but then they return home, a
week or a month will pass and persons will return to the situation when
no one will be able to service the prosthetic appliances,” he said.