On 9 November 2022, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gunda Reire, met with representatives from Ukrainian medical institutions who have arrived in Latvia for experience exchange at the National Rehabilitation Centre “Vaivari”. While in Latvia, the Ukrainian health workers will be exploring the experience of Latvian experts in the rehabilitation of amputee patients.
The Parliamentary Secretary thanked the National Rehabilitation Centre “Vaivari” and welcomed cooperation between the Latvian and Ukrainian medical institutions. Providing assistance to people who have be affected by the Russian military aggression is one of our priorities, and Latvia is prepared to offer further support for the development of Ukraine’s rehabilitation system, Gunda Reire said. She noted that regrettably due to the brutal invasion of the Russian armed forces, an increasingly larger number of Ukrainian people were in need of rehabilitation after amputations.
She underlined that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was honoured to support the present cooperation project, which kept attracting new cooperation partners. We are certain that the project will contribute considerably to reducing suffering caused by the brutal Russian invasion, Gunda Reire said.
The Ukrainian medics also had meetings with Andra Levite, the spouse of the Latvian President, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Latvia, Olexandr Mischenko, and Rūta Dimanta, the head of the ziedot.lv charity portal.
The visit by the Ukrainian medical professionals was made possible by a development cooperation project financed by the Ministry and Foreign Affairs. The Parliamentary Secretary thanked the ziedot.lv organisation for their support to the financing of the visit.
Background information
The visit by health workers from Ukraine is part of a development cooperation project supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Experience exchange with Ukrainian hospitals in the implementation of rehabilitation programmes for amputee patients”. The project is being implemented in 2022 and 2023by the National Rehabilitation Centre “Vaivari” in partnership with six Ukrainian medical institutions. The objective of the project is cooperation and experience exchange while helping to put in place rehabilitation programmes in Ukraine for limb amputation patients affected by Russia’s military aggression and to create a circulation system for technical assistive devices.
Since 2014, Ukrainian soldiers have already been undergoing treatment at the National Rehabilitation Centre “Vaivari” under a rehabilitation programme coordinated by the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.