Support Ukraine advocate after husband's murder

Dear all,

Please help me raise funds for Olena Koval, a Ukrainian social rights advocate with a disability whose husband was recently murdered by Russian soldiers. The funds will help her and her family meet basic needs after their resettlement in Western Ukraine.

Olena (at the head of the table) is a 48-year old lawyer from Ukraine who has devoted her own life to helping others. She played an important role in efforts to overhaul Soviet regulations that made it almost impossible for cancer patients in pain to get access to adequate amounts of morphine. She worked with the Ukrainian government to ensure people with opioid dependence got access to evidence-based drug treatment. She has helped hundreds of people over the years secure their healthcare rights when they were violated or at risk. When Russia invaded, Olena wrote amendments to medicines regulations--since adopted by Ukraine's government--that allow palliative care and drug treatment patients to get extra supplies of their medications so they don’t run out at a time when filling a prescription can be a deadly undertaking.

Prior to the invasion, Olena and her family lived in Bucha, a town on the outskirts of Kyiv. When Russian forces occupied their neighborhood, Olena, her 23-year old son, and a pregnant relative escaped in order to be closer to a hospital in case the relative went into labor. Olena’s husband, Viktor (right side of the picture), stayed at their house together with several neighbors who were sheltering in their basement during bombardments. On March 5, Russian soldiers began going house-to-house on their street. When soldiers tried to open the locked door of the Koval home, Viktor got up and tried to run to the door. His neighbors heard an automatic weapon fire and watched Viktor fall to the ground. Russian soldiers entered, confiscated and destroyed everyone’s phones, and refused to call for medical help. According to the neighbors, Viktor died about ten minutes later. Olena made several unsuccessful attempts to retrieve her husband’s body. She understands that his body was eventually buried in a mass grave in Bucha.

Olena, her son (not shown), and her elderly parents (left side of the picture) have since fled the Kyiv region and have found temporary shelter in a summer home without water or facilities in Western Ukraine. Their home in Bucha has been destroyed. Olena has lived with a disability ever since undergoing surgery to remove a benign tumor from her spine a decade ago, and walks with great difficulty using a walking stick.

For years, Olena helped others. Let us now please help Olena and her family in this time of great need.

Thank you,

Diederik