Razom is honored to announce a $1,620,000 grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation
Razom is honored to announce a $1,620,000 grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation to support the Razom Heroes emergency medicine program.
“Russia’s full-scale invasion has targeted Ukraine’s critical infrastructure while deliberately killing and injuring thousands of civilians and regularly overwhelming Ukraine’s emergency response capabilities. Our partnership with Razom is designed to expand Ukraine’s emergency medical response capacity by delivering medical supplies and training to Ukraine’s civilian first-responders and essential workers.” – Howard G. Buffett, the Foundation’s Chairman and CEO
Established in 1999, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation has invested more than $600 million in Ukraine since the Russian full-scale invasion in 2022 to address the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. The Foundation’s support has been instrumental to sustaining Ukraine’s agricultural sector, building Ukraine’s capacity for demining, and rebuilding strategic infrastructure.
The Foundation’s grant to Razom will facilitate the delivery of 5,000 Individual First Aid Kits (IFAKs), supplies and staff training for Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) and Ukraine’s State Emergency Services.
In 2023, Razom Heroes made over 1,700 individual deliveries of supplies to end-users across Ukraine, including distributing over 40,000 IFAKs. Teaming up with the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, Razom facilitated week-long basic medical training for some 2,000 civilian leaders across Ukraine including educators, civil society leaders, local government employees, and medical students.
Razom is a leading U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to offering humanitarian aid and delivering programs and services that prioritize health, education, and civil society in Ukraine. Additionally, Razom advocates for Ukraine and fosters the sharing of Ukrainian culture in America.
NEW YORK JETS ANNOUNCE RAZOM FOR UKRAINE AS RECIPIENT OF AN ADDITIONAL $100,000 FOR UKRAINIAN RELIEF EFFORTS
Part of $1,000,000 commitment from the Jets
The New York Jets have donated an additional $100,000 to benefit Razom for Ukraine. The donation is part of the organization’s $1 million commitment, to be split between various organizations, to help aid the humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. Previous donations of $100,000 were given to Razom for Ukraine, Plast Scouting, the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, UNITED24, CityServe, Slow Beskid & Children’s Paths, Nova Ukraine and Revived Soldiers Ukraine.
In 2022 and 2023, Razom distributed more than $80 million in donated funds to over 150 organizations in Ukraine that provide aid and services to frontline and liberated areas that supply basic needs such as food, power, medicine, first aid kits and water filtration systems. Additional and ongoing support includes providing winterization materials to individuals along with the scaling up tactical medicines and supplies for field medics, evacuation vehicles, tourniquets, portable medical scanners, and mobile shower units for frontline defenders.
The events in Ukraine are personal to the Johnson family and the New York Jets. Suzanne Johnson, wife of Mr. Johnson, grew up in a Ukrainian neighborhood in New York and is from a family of immigrants. Her mother, Marie, was born to Ukrainian immigrant parents while her father, Stefan Ircha, is from Ternopil, a town outside of Kyiv, and immigrated to the United States after WWII.
For more information about the charitable organizations that have received the donations, please visit https://www.newyorkjets.com/community/ukraine-relief.
About Jets Foundation
We create impactful programming that leaves lasting legacies for our community. Initiatives funded by the New York Jets Foundation positively influence the lives of young people in the tri-state area and provide opportunity for disadvantaged communities.
About Razom for Ukraine
Razom for Ukraine (Razom) was founded in 2014 and is one of the leading US-based nonprofits dedicated to the mission of supporting a democratic and prosperous Ukraine. With a robust international network of volunteers and partners, Razom, which means “together” in Ukrainian, provides humanitarian aid, and administers programs and services focused on health, advocacy, civil society and culture. Razom advances its mission by creating spaces where people meet, partner and do, while maintaining a relentless focus on the needs on the ground in Ukraine. Since the full-scale invasion in 2022, Razom for Ukraine has grown to include over 200,000 donors and volunteers. Website: www.razomforukraine.org.
Contact: Meghan Gilmore (973) 549-4684
Photo: Greg Kupchynsky
Razom Announces Four Medical Trips to Ukraine as Part of Co-Pilot Project
Razom Co-Pilot Project’s mission is to address the significant deficit in high-quality neurosurgical, spine, reconstructive, and plastic surgery training in Ukraine by sending skilled surgeons from across the US and Canada to mentor and aid Ukrainian surgeons through difficult cases.
The medical trips include two completed missions and two future missions in spring 2023:
- LEAP Global Missions March 17-26, Lviv, Ukraine: In the first formal LEAP mission of its kind and in partnership with the Ukrainian Christian Medical Association, two skilled doctors led a team of 11 medical professionals to assist with war-related and non war-related surgeries at First Emergency, St. Nicholas, Ohkhmatdyt and the Military Hospital of the Western Region. Their specializations include craniofacial, craniofacial orthodontics, head and neck trauma, head and neck reconstruction, neurosurgery, urology, and dermatology. The team worked across 3 different hospitals, where patients with war injuries were transferred from a neighboring community so the team could help as many as possible. Razom is proud to have contributed to this mission by covering housing, food and medical supply expenses, scrubs through FIGS, and transportation for the doctors who invested their time and knowledge in treating children in Lviv affected by the war.
- Face the Future, March 24 – April 2, 2023, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine: Razom, Face the Future Foundation (Canada), and the Ukrainian Association of Endoscopic Head and Neck Surgery brought together a team of 13 American and Canadian doctors and nurses, who joined 17 Ukrainian team members to treat victims of war. Supported by Healing the Children Northeast, they met weekly for three months to pre-plan surgical treatments for each patient. These meetings also included Ukrainian specialists from Materialise, who created customized 3D-printed implants for patients. 100 soldiers and civilians with war injuries were assessed, with 30 selected for reconstructive facial surgery, and a total of 112 procedures were performed. Face the Future also held an International Symposium on War Injuries attended by 130 Ukrainian surgeons, a Nursing Academic Day for 70 nurses, and live-streamed surgeries for 590 Ukrainian doctors. Currently, Still Strong, a Ukrainian surgeon-run patient management database working with the mission, has accepted 347 patients requiring complex reconstruction to regain facial functions, improve patients’ appearance and decrease their PTSD. Future missions this year and next are currently being planned to address these tragedies of war and build Ukrainian health care capacity for complex facial reconstruction.
- FACE TO FACE, April 21-30, Lviv, Ukraine: FACE TO FACE is the humanitarian arm of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS). This project was created in cooperation with AAFPRS, Razom, the medical NGO INgenius, and Healing the Children Northeast to help wounded victims of the war in Ukraine. A team of 9 facial plastic surgeons and 8 nurses will perform reconstructive and plastic surgeries of the head and neck area at the Lviv Military Hospital in Ukraine, the largest medical military center in the western part of Ukraine, which admits a record number of wounded soldiers daily. The doctors will perform 30 surgeries with high levels of complexity, as the majority of the patients have severe facial defects that require sophisticated surgeries, including microvascular reconstruction. One of the planned surgeries is considered to be one of the most unique facial microvascular reconstruction cases, using bones from the legs and arms, which takes about 15 hours. This kind of surgery helps not only to restore the face, but also restore the ability to eat and speak. As part of the mission, the complex reconstructions of the facial skeleton will be carried out using personalized printed titanium 3D implants from Materialise. This type of surgery is not part of the typical Ukrainian surgical training, leaving the majority of patients without appropriate treatment. As such, this mission will encompass an educational component. The team will perform complex microvascular reconstructive surgeries that help patients, while also training local surgeons so they can perform similar surgeries in the future by broadcasting the surgeries live. Around 200 Ukrainian doctors, including otolaryngologists, maxillofacial surgeons, ophthalmologists, plastic and general surgeons, have already registered for the broadcast, where US and Ukrainian specialists will walk through every step of the surgery. The FACE TO FACE team will also be awarded by Lviv Regional State Administration for their work. The first FACE TO FACE mission of plastic and reconstructive surgeons took place on September 16-22. During the mission, 34 consultations and 31 operative interventions were conducted at the base of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Clinical Hospital. For more information: https://www.razomforukraine.org/razom-face-to-face/
- Neurosurgeons for Ukraine, April 27 – May 7, Lviv Ukraine: A group of neurosurgeons, their assistants and medical students will travel from the US to Lviv, Ukraine to assist in and train Ukrainian surgeons in performing complex cranial surgeries. This interdisciplinary team will consist of a pediatric neurosurgeon, a neurointerventional radiologist, a skull-base neurosurgeon, and a cerebrovascular neurosurgeon with expertise in neurotrauma and neurocritical care. The group will also bring valuable neurosurgical equipment to expand the neurosurgical operative capabilities in Ukraine. The team will collaborate with their Ukrainian colleagues to operate on a diverse mix of patients, including adults and children, as well as those with a variety of complex tumors and cerebrovascular malformations. Patients will be evaluated in a clinic and operated on at the Lviv Territorial Medical Union Multidisciplinary Clinical Hospital of Emergency and Intensive Care. In addition to the valuable time spent teaching complex operative techniques to Ukrainian surgeons in the operating room, the US-based team will host a number of conferences and didactic sessions aimed at educating surgeons and surgical trainees in Ukraine.
“Razom is grateful to the doctors, our partners, including hospitals in Ukraine, and everyone who has made these trips possible,” said Mariya Soroka, Razom Co-Founder and Co-Pilot Project Co-Lead. “The importance of medical trips to Ukraine is critical to boosting the Ukrainian health care system, implementing new medical technologies, educating doctors, and of course saving thousands of lives and improving the quality of life for countless others.”
Learn more about Razom Co-Pilot Project and Razom Health
Razom Proud to be Recognized for MedShare’ International’s Prestigious 2023 Bob Freeman Humanitarian Award
Razom for Ukraine has been awarded the prestigious 2023 Bob Freeman Humanitarian Award. Named for one of MedShare’s founders, the honor is awarded each year by MedShare International, a global humanitarian aid organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of people, communities and the planet by reallocating surplus medical supplies and biomedical equipment.
Since russia’s invasion of Ukraine, RazomHealth, in partnership with MedShare, has sent 8 large shipments of critical medical supplies to Ukraine, with each shipment ranging from 5-25 pallets including items such as surgical external and internal fixators, orthopedic surgical implants and screws, hygiene kits, neurosurgical OR tablets, and other needed supplies. Thanks to MedShare’s vast network of medical supply partners, Razom was able to distribute the much-needed donations of quality supplies to hospitals in most need across Ukraine via our partners, including Zdorovi and Rescue Now.
“MedShare has stood by Razom’s side and supported Ukraine from the early first weeks of war – from coordinating shipment logistics door-to-door, guiding our procurement process, and being responsive to our needs on the ground – and we are proud that they are still supporting us,” said Dora Chomiak, Razom CEO. “They are an incredible, dedicated, empathetic and reliable humanitarian Non-Government Organization (NGO) that focuses its work on providing humanitarian and medical relief to disaster-war-torn zones and filling the supply chain with quality medical supplies. We are grateful to have built a trusted partnership and look forward to continuing life-saving work together.”
“MedShare is proud to recognize the herculean efforts of Razom for Ukraine as we work together to deliver medical aid to Ukraine and to Ukrainian refugees,” said Charles W. Redding, CEO & President of MedShare. “We pledge to continue to work hand-in-hand with Razom and our other humanitarian partners to provide health and hope to the millions of men, women and children impacted by the ravages of war, and the selfless doctors, nurses, support personnel and volunteers committed to serving them and their families.”
Learn more about Razom Health. Support Ukraine and Ukrainian healthcare system by donating today.
Notes From Ukraine concert celebrates centennial of Ukrainian “Carol of the Bells” at Carnegie Hall
The Ukrainian Institute (Kyiv, Ukraine), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine), Razom for Ukraine (New York, United States), and the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival (New York, United States) co-present Notes from Ukraine: A 100-Year Celebration of Carol of the Bells at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage on Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.
The concert showcases world-famous choral artists from Ukraine and North America, including Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York (as featured on SNL), Kyiv-based, Ukrainian Children’s Choir Shchedryk, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, along with special guests, soprano Janai Brugger and Toronto-based Ukrainian folk singer Marichka Marczyk.
The program features a world premiere by composer Trevor Weston, setting the words of Ukrainian Nobel Prize-nominated poet, Serhiy Zhadan, as well as American choral works with Ukrainian connections by composers Eric Whitacre, Leonard Bernstein, Valentyn Sylvestrov, George Gershwin, and others.
The choral celebration will bring continued awareness to the current war in Ukraine and part of the funds raised through ticket sales will be directed to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Initiative: United24 Rebuild Ukraine campaign.
“This year, 2022, marks the centennial of the famous U.S. tour by the Ukrainian People’s Republic’s Koshyts Capella where they first performed the all-time-favorite ‘Carol of the Bells’, or ‘Shchedryk’ as we call it in Ukraine. Judging by the popularity of the song one century later, the tour was a great success of Ukrainian cultural diplomacy. We take this year’s celebration as a great opportunity to celebrate Ukrainian centuries-old culture and statehood in the times when Russia tries to destroy them. I am sure the event will give the audience a sense of what we are defending and why Ukraine will win,” Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba stated.
Celebrating 100 Years of Carol of the Bells
The year 2022 marks one hundred years since the North American premiere of Mykola Leontovych’s “Shchedryk” (known today as “Carol of the Bells”) at New York’s Carnegie Hall. This Christmas classic has captured the American imagination through film, television and commercials — from Home Alone to Coca-Cola to the Muppets — and through performances by groups as diverse as the NBA, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and many others.
“Shchedryk” (“Carol of the Bells”) premiered in the United States at Carnegie Hall on October 5, 1922 on a concert which was part of the first Ukrainian cultural diplomacy project, a world tour by the Ukrainian Republic Capella choir conducted by renowned musician Oleksandr Koshyts. The Capella was established on the initiative of the government of Ukraine and sent abroad to promote awareness of Ukrainian independence in Europe and the Americas and to counter Russian propaganda. The tour was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Arts and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), and they performed more than 200 concerts in North America alone, at major halls and universities.
Carnegie Hall Renovation 2014, Location: New York City, Architect: Iu + Bibliowicz | photo credit: Jeff Goldberg / ESTO
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Tickets for “Notes from Ukraine: 100 Years of Carol of the Bells” range from $50 to $105 and are on sale now through the Carnegie Hall Box Office, by calling Carnegie Charge at 212-247-7800, or by visiting carnegiehall.org.
For more information on the event, please visit www.carolofthebells100.org.
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Press Contact
Dr. Leah Batstone | (614) 795-8577
leah@razomforukraine.org
Jacob Slattery
jacob@orpheusbureau.com
Media Kit
Click here for media kit
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About Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kyiv
The mission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is to represent and protect the interests of Ukraine in the international arena and to facilitate a favorable international environment for the development and realization of the potential of Ukraine, its society and citizens.
About Ukrainian Institute, Kyiv
The Ukrainian Institute Kyiv is a state institution acting in the field of cultural diplomacy. The institution’s activities are aimed at improving the understanding and perception of Ukraine in the world and the development of its cultural ties with other countries. Established by the Government of Ukraine, the Institute operates under the administration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
About United24, Kyiv
UNITED24 was launched by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the main venue for collecting charitable donations in support of Ukraine. Funds will be transferred to the official accounts of the National Bank of Ukraine and allocated by assigned ministries to cover the most pressing needs.
About Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, New York
The Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival is an annual three-day concert series showcasing Ukraine’s unique and exciting contributions to the field of contemporary music. Based in New York City, the festival engages audiences at the intersection of new music, contemporary events, and the culture of Ukraine.
Razom for Ukraine, New York
Razom is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2014 during the Revolution of Dignity. Razom, which means “together” in Ukrainian, believes deeply in the enormous potential of dedicated volunteers and donors from around the world united by a single goal: building and maintaining a democratic and prosperous Ukraine. Razom works towards that mission by creating spaces where people meet, partner, and do.
“War cannot eliminate our ability to speak. We retain the right to sing, the right to articulate and to debate our experiences. Ukraine is speaking and today it is impossible not to hear her.”
~ Serhiy Zhadan