Primary Healthcare for Remote Communities in Ukraine
Ukraine - Donetsk - Kharkiv
Primary healthcare services for remote communities in conflict-affected Ukraine.
Since the escalation of the war with Russia in 2022, Ukraine’s health system has faced enormous strain. Hospitals and clinics have been damaged and destroyed, medical staff displaced and entire rural areas left without access to basic services.
EMERGENCY is working to restore access to care for people living in some of the most isolated and war-affected villages in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. Our grassroots project aims to strengthen the primary healthcare system, combining community-based outreach with the rehabilitation of local facilities, in close collaboration with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and local authorities.
Where We Work
In eastern Ukraine, the war has caused extreme devastation. Enduring years of mass displacement and attacks on essential energy infrastructure, the region requires significant humanitarian support. EMERGENCY’s activities are concentrated in largely rural areas that have been heavily affected by insecurity, poor road conditions and shortages of health workers.
Across the municipalities of Oleksandrivka (Donetsk oblast), Barvinkove and Blyznyky (Kharkiv oblast), we are reaching more than 25,000 residents through a network of fixed and semi-mobile outpatient clinics, supported by a trained community workforce.
"The Donetsk region, at war since 2014, has had the highest number of civilian casualties since the beginning of the current conflict: over 2,500 to date, according to the data available.
Luca Rifiorati, EMERGENCY’s Project Coordinator in Ukraine
Several hundred thousand Ukrainians have left the region. Among the remaining population, there are many vulnerable people, such as elderly people with chronic diseases, people with disabilities, people confined to their beds, and people with few means of subsistence.
The aim of EMERGENCY’s intervention is to bridge the gap that has developed over these years, and under these conditions, between the national health system and the people who have decided to remain home."
A Network of Local Clinics
EMERGENCY is rehabilitating damaged health facilities or installing pre-fabricated structures converted into fully equipped outpatient clinics. These modular units can be relocated if frontlines shift, ensuring continuity of care even in volatile contexts. In these facilities, Ukrainian doctors and nurses provide medical and nursing care, completely free of charge.
The beneficiaries of these primary healthcare services are often people in some of the most vulnerable and isolated parts of society.
“This allows beneficiaries to resume and continue interrupted therapies and monitor their health status, thus avoiding the worsening of their conditions and easing the burden on hospitals.
Alessandro Lamberti, EMERGENCY's Healthcare Coordinator in Ukraine
In these facilities, we also provide training for medical and non-medical personnel, integrating new staff into the Ukrainian health system to offer completely free medical and nursing services.”
EMERGENCY’s support at the Oleksandrivka Interim Evacuation Point
The number of internally displaced people in Donetsk is increasing: around 100 displaced people arrive in the Oblast every 24 hours, reaching about 3,000 total.
These are people who have abandoned their homes or were already displaced, seeking a safe place to shelter.
At the Oleksandrivka Interim Evacuation Point, set up by local authorities in a school building, temporary accommodation and assistance are provided to displaced people before they are referred to other facilities.
In collaboration with local authorities, EMERGENCY is present in the Centre with a team – composed of a nurse and a community health worker – providing health and psychosocial support to displaced people in transit. We also support the Centre’s humanitarian response with donations of supplies, such as soap, toilet paper, towels, detergents and disinfectants, drinking water, nappies for children and adults, and first aid kits.
In the first few days, I noticed an elderly woman in a state of panic: she told us that she had fled alone from the village of Kostiantynivka and did not know where to go. We examined her and, in the meantime, offered her comfort to help her calm down. Offering reassurance in a moment of profound fragility is, for us, a gesture of humanity that goes beyond care.
Luca Rifiorati, EMERGENCY Project Coordinator in Ukraine
Community Health Workers: Linking Households and Health Services
In parallel, the training, support and coordination of teams of Community Health Workers makes it possible to make contact with people in their homes to better understand their needs.
The Community Health Worker model is a people-centred approach that combines clinical care with active community engagement. It ensures that health services are not only delivered in clinics but also reach people directly in their homes and communities, addressing everyday health needs and barriers to access.
Our Community Health Workers are regular women and men, trained to operate door-to-door within their own villages. They speak directly with community members, assess individual and community health needs, identify vulnerable patients and monitor those managing chronic conditions, support clinic referrals, and provide health education and basic psycho-social support.
Thanks to their work in the field, this integration between communities and clinics improves early disease detection, treatment continuity and trust in the health system.
"Before the war, my life was serene and stable, then everything changed with the conflict: gradually all contacts with the outside world eroded, also because of the reduction in means of transport, which does not make it easy to reach the health facilities.
Nadia, EMERGENCY Community Health Worker, Petrivka Druha village
EMERGENCY intervened in our communities by filling this gap, training us as Community Health Workers to reconnect people with their own needs, neglected for months or years. People are grateful for the service we provide, they tell us that, thanks to our role, they have stopped feeling abandoned and forgotten. Staying here is dangerous, we know that, but so is leaving and having no prospects for the future. That's why many people have returned to live in the villages: only here do they really feel at home."
Partnerships and Innovation
Our team of Community Health Workers and clinic staff are receiving ongoing training and supervision on emergency management, mental health and chronic disease follow-up care. Activities are monitored through a digital case management platform, enabling data-informed planning and coordination with local health authorities.
In addition to working with local organisations to expand our activities, EMERGENCY is also collaborating with Kharkiv National Medical University to support community screenings for tuberculosis, HIV and hepatitis, combining prevention activities with stigma reduction and treatment referrals.
With the integration of psycho-social support at the community level, we are also responding to the emotional and psychological impact of the war.
Help care for the victims of war
Your donation allows us to provide healthcare to those who need it, every day.
This project is part of the Emergency Initiative in support of the most vulnerable population in the regions of Ukraine most affected by the conflict, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), with a total contribution of 23 million euros.
The initiative supports projects implemented by Italian, international, and local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) providing life-saving humanitarian aid in the sectors of protection, health, water and sanitation, emergency relief, distributions and transport, agriculture and food security, education, and humanitarian demining, reaching thousands of vulnerable individuals across Ukraine.
The 2025 Emergency Initiative builds on the success of AICS’s previous humanitarian response, which since 2022 has mobilized over 110 million euros in emergency and recovery assistance to Ukraine and neighboring countries.
