Wireless company in Ukraine holds charity benefit for Chornobyl relief (09/18/05)

Wireless company in Ukraine holds charity benefit for Chornobyl relief

by Alexander Kuzma

KYIV - This summer, the Ukrainian wireless giant UMC (Ukrainian Mobile Communications) held a series of public events to celebrate a landmark achievement as it surpassed its goal of 10 million customers by the year 2005. As a token of appreciation for its many loyal customers, UMC held a special televised charity marathon offering 1 million free calling minutes to 10 lucky customers as part of a nationwide raffle to support the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund.

Contestants were invited to send their answers to a televised quiz by sending an SMS message to a special hotline for the cost of 1 hrv for each response (about 20 cents at the current exchange rate of 5.05 hrv to the dollar). UMC customers raised over 671,948 hrv, or $133,000 through the raffle, and the company matched this public response for a combined contribution of 1,343,896 hrv, or $266,118 (U.S.).

UMC's charitable donation is scheduled to be transferred to the Children of Chornobyl in mid-September. The grant was announced at a press conference on August 18 at the UNIAN press center that was covered on national television throughout Ukraine. UMC's Chief Executive Officer Eric Franke expressed his company's trust and confidence in the Children of Chornobyl and the fund's ability to implement effective programs in its partner hospitals with the funds that have been raised.

"We are sincerely grateful to our customers who responded to our SMS action and made their contribution to this charitable project of UMC," said Mr. Franke. "We have achieved a unique result: never before in Ukraine has a charitable event generated such significant sums. I'm convinced that these funds will help thousands of Ukrainian children."

Appearing on behalf of the fund, Maryana Voronovych congratulated UMC on its great commercial success and thanked the company for its outstanding contribution to the well-being of Ukraine's children. "We will do everything in our power to make sure that this grant has a significant impact on the health of children who are suffering from a wide range of life-threatening illnesses." Ms. Voronovych announced that the UMC donation would be designated for pioneering programs in three hospitals in Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk and Chernivtsi.

The Lviv Regional Clinical Children's Hospital (Okhmadyt) will receive technology, training and instrumentation for its cardiac and thoracic surgery program. Under the leadership of Dr. Roman Kovalsky, this center is one of only a handful of hospitals in Ukraine that provide life-saving operations for children born with congenital cardiac and thoracic defects. It is playing a leading role in the campaign to expand the number of open-heart surgeries available for some of the 8,000 infants born each year in need of such operations. Last year, only 600 received such operations, nearly doubling the number from the year before.

The Chernivtsi City Maternity Center will receive support for its neonatal intensive care unit to help save the lives of premature and low-birth-weight babies and to provide treatment for infants with congenital defects. The UMC grant will help to supplement the generous contributions of the Andriuk family of Norwalk, Connecticut.

Last year, Dr. Alex Andriuk and his brothers Mark and Andrew made a multi-year commitment to this hospital in honor of their parents, Col. Basil Andriuk, and Martha Andriuk who served as a vice-president of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund from 1990 until her untimely death in 2003. "We hope to upgrade this facility and let it serve as a vital training center for doctors and interns from the prestigious Chernivtsi Medical University," said the fund's president, Dr. Zenon Matkiwsky.

The third beneficiary of the UMC grant will be Dnipropetrovsk City Children's Hospital No. 3, which has been a leader in saving children's lives in this heavily industrialized and environmentally damaged region of Ukraine. Under the leadership of its chief physician, Dr. Ihor Makedonsky, who trained at the Boston Children's Hospital, the hospital CCH3 has won acclaim for its innovative procedures to save small children suffering various congenital defects. The UMC funds will be used to purchase a special diagnostic system that can help facilitate operations of complex anomalies of the urinary tract and reproductive organs in small children.

"Even without advanced technology, Dr. Makedonsky's surgical team has already proven its ability to perform uniquely successful operations in this sphere," said Dr. Matkiwsky. "Our hope is to expand their capacity in the very near future. With UMC's generous support, we can now implement a program we thought might take much longer to finance."

Earlier this spring, UMC signed a Memorandum of Strategic Partnership with the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund and made a donation of $10,000 to the fund as its first investment in this charitable partnership. The telemarathon and the "We are 10 Million" campaign gave the Children of Chornobyl mission widespread exposure through frequent advertisements that reached millions of television viewers.

Since its inception in 1989, the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund has delivered 31 airlifts and over $53 million worth of medical and humanitarian aid to Ukrainian hospitals and orphanages. The fund has helped many of its partner hospitals reduce infant mortality, treat birth defects and improve cancer survival rates.

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