{"id":677,"date":"2025-10-09T11:11:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/a-victory-worth-knowing-about\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T11:11:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:11:05","slug":"a-victory-worth-knowing-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/a-victory-worth-knowing-about\/","title":{"rendered":"A Victory Worth Knowing About"},"content":{"rendered":"If you ask, \u201cIs all medical care free for our military?\u201d most people will answer, \u201cYes, of course\u2014it\u2019s guaranteed by law.\u201d But only those who have encountered so-called \u201cfree healthcare\u201d in practice know that things are not always perfect, and that the National Health Service package has its limitations. \n\nThis story began in the spring of 2023, when \u201cWe Will See Victory\u201d first faced the need to raise funds for biomaterials to restore vision. At that moment, we asked ourselves: why does one of the most critical procedures\u2014corneal transplantation\u2014require additional funding? As finding an answer took time, we chose to act.  \n\nUnderstanding the system, identifying the flaw, and fixing it at the state level is not a task for a month\u2014or, as it turned out, even a year. But corneas that could restore sight to injured soldiers with blast-related eye trauma were needed immediately. That is why we launched an ongoing fundraiser to respond quickly and cover urgent needs.  \n\nWe could have waited: first to find a beneficiary, then launch an individual fundraiser, order the material, verify it, and only then perform the surgery. But it\u2019s hard to imagine what it means to lose vision fully or partially\u2014and to wait every single day for the moment you can see light again. \n\nFor two years, we have been raising awareness, bringing volunteers together, engaging businesses, and\u2014without unnecessary bureaucracy\u2014meeting the urgent need for corneal transplants. Thanks to our experience and the support of the Ophthalmology Department of Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No. 1 (headed by Nataliia Veselovska), we have:<br>\u2705 performed 27 surgeries;\n\u2705 procured 31 corneas worth UAH 1.5 million.  \n\nBut our greatest achievement is not in the numbers.\n\nFrom the very first days this issue arose, it was taken up at the state level by Member of Parliament Hanna Purtova. Countless documents, draft laws, conferences, and negotiations with the Ministry of Health\u2014this process lasted for months. It is difficult to fully grasp how much effort and time it required, but the result is clear: \ud83d\ude80 From now on, the state fully funds corneal transplantation, including the biomaterial.  \n\nOur team is pleased to announce that we are closing the final fundraiser for the last cornea that was not covered by the National Health Service of Ukraine. Starting this month, the system should function as intended. We hope we will never have to return to this issue again\u2014because many other challenges still lie ahead.  \n\nWe are grateful to everyone who stood with us:\n\u2014to those who donated, shared, and supported;\n\u2014to the ophthalmologists of Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No. 1 for their professionalism;\n\u2014to Anna Purtova for resolving this issue at the national level.\n\nThe cornea fundraiser is now closed. The issue has been resolved. Moving forward! \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6   ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you ask, \u201cIs all medical care free for our military?\u201d most people will answer, \u201cYes, of course\u2014it\u2019s guaranteed by law.\u201d But only those who have encountered so-called \u201cfree healthcare\u201d in practice know that things are not always perfect, and that the National Health Service package has its limitations. This story began in the spring<a href=\"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/a-victory-worth-knowing-about\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;A Victory Worth Knowing About&#8221;<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevictory.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}