By Anna Demchenko | Grant Manager
Overview of the Reporting Period
During the current reporting period, the "Wheels of Life" project entered a decisive new phase. The central development was the official launch of a large-scale national fundraising campaign for the purchase of a fully equipped neonatal resuscitation ambulance for the perinatal center, organized in partnership with PrivatBank, Ukraine's largest bank.
The launch of this campaign followed an urgent request received from the perinatal center, which confirmed the critical and growing need for specialized neonatal transport. Due to the ongoing war, constant shelling, and chronic stress experienced by pregnant women, thousands of Ukrainian children are now born under conditions of elevated medical risk. For newborns in critical condition, the first minutes of life are often decisive — time itself frequently determines whether a child has a chance to survive.
Key Activity: Launch of the National Fundraising Campaign with PrivatBank
The most significant milestone of this reporting period was the official launch of the joint fundraising campaign between the Blagomay Charity Fund and PrivatBank, dedicated to purchasing a modern neonatal resuscitation ambulance for the perinatal center.
The campaign is built around a simple but powerful message: every donation is not merely money — it is added time for life. It represents the extra minutes that allow doctors to reach a newborn in time, stabilize their condition, and safely deliver them to specialized care.
Campaign timeline: June 2026 – December 2026
Fundraising goal: 7,500,000 UAH for a fully equipped neonatal resuscitation ambulance with modern medical equipment for the perinatal center.
The partnership with PrivatBank significantly expands the reach of the campaign, making it visible to millions of Ukrainians through the bank's digital platforms and enabling convenient, secure donations. This collaboration also reflects the growing culture of corporate philanthropy in Ukraine, where leading businesses join forces with civil society to address urgent humanitarian needs during wartime.
The Vehicle and Its Life-Saving Equipment
The planned ambulance is far more than a regular emergency vehicle — it functions as a mobile neonatal intensive care unit. The vehicle will be built on a PEUGEOT BOXER chassis (Type C) and designed and equipped in full compliance with the national standard DSTU EN 1789:2019, which harmonizes Ukrainian requirements with European standards for medical vehicles. It is a specialized transport designed for the transportation, medical support, and continuous monitoring of a patient's condition throughout the journey, meeting high requirements for ergonomics, comfort, and emergency neonatal care.
The ambulance will be equipped with technology that allows medical teams to sustain a newborn's life en route to the hospital and perform critical medical interventions directly during transport (the final list and models of equipment may be adjusted during procurement):
Problem Statement and Context
Ukraine continues to face a severe demographic crisis, dramatically aggravated by the full-scale war. Each year, approximately 20,000–22,000 babies in Ukraine are born prematurely — nearly 10% of all births. The number of premature births has increased due to war-related factors: high levels of psychological stress and anxiety among pregnant women, limited access to medical services in frontline regions, and internal displacement that disrupts the continuity of prenatal care.
Premature infants and newborns with complications require immediate specialized care — transport incubators, respiratory support, continuous monitoring, and, crucially, rapid and safe transfer to advanced perinatal facilities. Today, Ukrainian children are quite literally born to the sound of air-raid sirens. Yet even now, we can give them the most important thing — a chance to live.
Access to a properly equipped neonatal ambulance can mean the difference between life and death. This is precisely the gap that the "Wheels of Life" project is designed to close.
What Your Contribution Will Achieve
Every donation to this campaign directly translates into concrete, life-saving outcomes. Your support will help to safely transport infants in critical condition, give medical teams precious time to stabilize a child during transfer, and strengthen the entire neonatal care system in Ukraine under wartime conditions.
In practical terms, every contribution means additional time for doctors, a chance to stabilize a newborn's condition, and the possibility of delivering the child to specialized care in time. Every minute matters — and every donation can become the decisive one.
Looking Ahead
In the next reporting period, the Blagomay Charity Fund plans to:
The long-term goal remains unchanged: to ensure that every newborn in critical condition receives timely, life-saving medical care — regardless of the circumstances into which they are born.
Gratitude
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the GlobalGiving community, to PrivatBank, and to all partners and donors who have joined this life-saving initiative. Every contribution brings us closer to a neonatal ambulance that will save the lives of the most vulnerable patients — newborn babies.
Together, we are turning donations into minutes — and minutes into saved lives.
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