Last update: 10 August 2022

Dear SAFER Ukraine friends

On July 8 in Lodz, Poland we hosted a strategic planning meeting with national coordinators and representatives of key partner organizations involved in our Initiative. It was a very fruitful discussion from which many ideas, challenges and projects – some of which we have already started working on – emerged.

Please see the summary brochure created by Taisiya Yakimkova. All the links from the summary are copied below the screenshots for your convenience.

Thank you for being with us!

SAFER Ukraine Team

SIOP 2022

Dear SIOP Members, friends and colleagues around the globe,

SIOP stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, the healthcare workers caring for children and adolescents with cancer and all others supporting patients and their families, or affected by the widespread violence and destruction caused by the Russian military invasion.

We are currently receiving many offers of help from our members and their institutions across the world.

We are collating these offers of support and communicating them to the initiatives summarised below.

In the face of this crisis, we are currently working with our partners from St Jude Global, SIOP Europe, Childhood Cancer International (CCI) and Childhood Cancer International Europe (CCI Europe) to see how we can help in the most practical and fastest ways.

The following information summarises the immediate actions taken to date, and the contact points for how you and your organisation can help:

SAFER Ukraine established a virtual command center to coordinate evacuations and ensure treatment continues for pediatric oncology patients. The process includes determining transportation logistics and identifying high-risk patients who are deteriorating. The SAFER Ukraine team and volunteers translate medical records, coordinate departure travel and manage the logistics of transport across the border. In addition to the above efforts, the team also established a triage clinic in Poland. Patients and their families can rest and recover from the evacuation while awaiting assignment to a clinic for continued treatment. Visit here or use the button below:

St Jude Global is pleased to be working with FundacjaHerosi to coordinate humanitarian efforts to assist with the transition and continuation of clinical care and treatment of Ukrainian children with cancer and blood diseases.

On March 05, 2022, the Foundation’s building in Bocheniec, now officially named the Unicorn Marian Wilemski Clinic, welcomed the first group of Ukrainian children and their families.

We are grateful to the many volunteers who have helped children reach Poland and other final destinations.

The Unicorn Marian Wilemski Clinic is named for the healing legend of unicorns and in honor of the grandfather of the St Jude staff member Dr Marta Salek , who is a pediatrician and St. Jude Research Fellow studying hematology and oncology in Memphis.

Referral point & Coordinator:

Coordinated by Prof. Ana Raciborska (Mother and Child Institute in Warsaw) and Prof. Wojciech Mlynarski (Medical University of Lodz).

St Jude is providing the coordination secretariat at SJ4UkraineVolunteers@stjude.org

Tabletochki Foundation 

Jointly with St Jude Global and the leaders of the programs they are organising the process of transfer to Poland in a phased manner, please send all questions, or shared information to SJ4UkraineVolunteers@stjude.org

Members of St. Jude and the teams in Poland and Ukraine have established an organized communications channel for requests and to help with coordination.

The email address SJ4UkraineVolunteers@stjude.org is monitored 24 hours a day.

• on One Drive to organize all the patient information
• WhatsApp group for rapid communication, and a general email account for outside requests

Please send all questions to SJ4UkraineVolunteers@stjude.org

• for patient registration
• medical record translation
• patient triage

All the patient information is organized and prioritized before sending it to Prof. Ana Raciborska and Prof. Wojciech Mlynarski.

Please feel free to direct any questions to SJ4UkraineVolunteers@stjude.org

SIOP Europe and CCI Europe are working together with national Paediatric Haemato-Oncology Societies in Europe to establish channels for patient transport and are coordinating with other EU countries such as Germany, France and Spain to help with transport and continued care of patients abroad as well as drug and haematology product supplies.

They are also currently in the process to set-up an account to receive donations. More details on this will follow shortly.

The WHO Euro office is currently setting up a crisis management team to manage cancer care needs among refugees from Ukraine across Europe. Various working groups which cover intelligence/data gathering, advocacy/outreach and technical support have been formed. SIOP as non-state-actor in official relations has dedicated a focal point for these efforts and we will keep our community updated on the progress

We further intend to issue an official letter to the Russian Ministry of Health and Government requesting the safety of patients, their families, their health care workers as well as the organisations helping on the ground to bring them abroad unharmed.

We hope that this extremely volatile situation can soon be defused and that the Ukrainian people will be free to determine their own future.

We will inform you about any further development and ways to reach out for help and support.

Our Ukrainian colleagues and their patients and families are in the thoughts of our global paediatric oncology community and we wish them all courage.

Kathy Pritchard-Jones

SIOP President

For any other questions, please email us at info@siop-online.org

UICC has announced today that they are setting up a solidarity Fund in response to its members’ requests to bridge funding into the region to support the needs of cancer organisations struggling to serve patients affected by the conflict. Find out more here

Our UK-based members have just recently shared an article from the Guardian about the oncology ward at Chernihiv children’s hospital, where patients are battling cancer, whilst their city is surrounded by Russian forces, and they are running out of medication and food. Read here

We have also received an email from our Russian members, specialized in clinical psychology informing us that thousands of Russian doctors and other healthcare workers have signed an open letter to Vladimir Putin. Read here