Period of implementation of the project: 

March 2020- August 2020

Challenge: 

Vulnerable medicine is the main challenge for the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine. Rural medicine with reduced funding is particularly vulnerable. COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced local budgets, suspended many industries and funds for community development and support for medicine in order to overcome COVID-19. ASTARTA continued to operate and pay taxes to local budgets in full and started implementing the Community Support Program during the COVID-19 pandemic. From the very beginning of quarantine, the Company paid attention to rural areas: hospitals, village first-aid stations, educational institutions, vulnerable groups of people.

 Tasks that were set:

1. Support for district hospitals, village first-aid stations in the territories of the Company’s presence;
2. Provide hospitals with all necessary means and equipment to overcome COVID-19; 3. Support Ukrainian doctors and provide them with all the necessary means for individual protection; 
3. Support for vulnerable groups (elderly people, low-income families) from rural areas;
4. Support educational institutions for the transition to distance learning and provide teachers of local communities with the tools of conducting classes online;
5. Provide means of protection for educational institutions for the beginning of the new school year (kindergartens and schools in local communities).

The WHO estimates that more than a billion people, or about 15% of the world’s population, have some form of disability. In the United States, this figure is about 25%, the number of people with disabilities in Ukraine today is about 6%.

Solution: 

In total, since the beginning of the quarantine, ASTARTA has allocated over UAH 25.7 million for the fight against coronavirus in Ukraine. The Company directs the main assistance to district hospitals and village first-aid stations in the territories of its presence. 

In addition, rural educational institutions have faced the problem of distance learning. Therefore, the Company conducted training for teachers of local communities and provided them with tools for online classes. All educational projects conducted by the Company along with communities have been transferred to remote mode. Also, all educational institutions in the territories of ASTARTA`s presence (kindergartens and schools) were provided with all the necessary means and equipment to start the new school year in adaptive quarantine. 

One of the important decisions was to accumulate funds for rural medicine. To this end, ASTARTA has partnered with other businesses and local farmers to support communities by coordinating joint actions and decisions.

It was also decided to help the vulnerable groups of people in providing food, so the Company cooperated with local social protection centers. And of course, the Company has taken a set of measures within its enterprises to overcome COVID-19, to secure its employees.

Results: 

Astarta allocated 25.7 million to counter COVID-19. Our company has also joined forces to help fight the coronavirus with other big businesses and authorities, and we work together to help hospitals, communities with expensive equipment, protective equipment, and disinfectants.

The main indicators of the project results are as follows:

• Purchased:
  • 35 ventilators
  • 5 oxygen concentrators
  • 1 defibrillator
  • 900 oxygen masks
  • 42 pulse oximeters
  • 2 patient monitors
  • 37,000 medical masks
  • 2,000 liters of disinfectants
  • 2,700 protective suits
  • 1050 medical gowns
  • 1000 test systems
  • 2 devices of laboratory research
  • 25,000 medical caps
  • 70 infrared thermometers
  • 25,000 medical gloves
  • 365 settlements received assistance in preparing schools and kindergartens for the new school year under adaptive quarantine;
  • 36 district hospitals and 219 village first-aid stations received the necessary facilities and equipment;
  • 3,000 vulnerable people received food kits;
  • 169 teachers were trained to switch to distance learning with the support of the Ukrainian Agrarian Lyceum;
  • 5 projects were implemented online;

It is worth noting that ASTARTA also helped protect medical workers in Kyiv. In cooperation with the Kyiv Volunteer Headquarters, we purchased and donated 1,100 protective suits, 1,000 pairs of disposable boot covers, 100 goggles and 2,100 FFP3 respirators to medical staff in 8 Kyiv hospitals  for a total of 1 million UAH.

Category: Covid-19

Company: Agri-industrial holding “Astarta-Kyiv”

About the company: 

ASTARTA is a vertically integrated AGRICULTURAL holding company operating in the field of sugar and agricultural production. The company is a leader in the production of sugar, milk, soybean meal and biogas in Ukraine.

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