All –

I realize that a great deal has been going on with our Ukraine efforts and I have not done the best job of passing all the information on in a consolidated fashion so that the entirety of the organization has visibility. My apologies. I wanted to provide that update now so that we all have the same information (and I have it all in one spot).

Mission

• As it stands right now, we will be launching our next Ukraine trip on 29 FEB to cover the month of March. We will have the same team going into country, and picking up a new interpreter to add to the mix once there. The mission profile and intent will match our July trip. Our intent remains to both provide advanced pre-hospital trauma training to Ukrainian front-line providers, as well as donating high end medical supplies, most of which will be purchased in country. The team is excited for this mission, and is well prepared to keep providing this critical training. For security reasons, we will not be sharing the proposed locations except internal to the team and then after we are safely through.

Funding

• we recently received a $30,000 from a foundation who wishes to remain anonymous. This will cover almost all of our operational costs (last mission cost approximately $36,000 and included $15,000 of medical equipment purchased and donated).
• we entered into a $2,000 fund raising agreement with a US-based organization based in Washington State named Volia who will be providing those funds.
• we are receiving an equipment donation of advanced trauma training equipment with an estimated value of $15,000.
• we are partnering with an organization called Ethos, who is under contract with the US Military to conduct research in Ukraine on trauma medicine. We are negotiating using our access to help them with this research in return for some funding assistance, perhaps to cover our travel and interpreters’ pay.
• I spoke yesterday with the CEO of Phiex Technologies, a company that is looking to develop an austere environment alternative to the autoclave. They are also interested in our access and are adding us to a governmental RFP for late 2024-early 2025. They are asking for $150,000 to support a three trip cycle into Ukraine to assist with this testing. I am extremely excited about this potential technology – the implications for developing countries the world over is significant.

Other relationships:

• Dnipro Tourniquet remains our in-country supplier for tourniquets and collapsible litters.
• North American Rescue – anything that we cannot get in Ukraine, we order from NAR, who gives us a significant discount.
• Thanks to Volia, we have been introduced to other fund-raising/medical equipment organizations who may be assisting us.
• Sunflower Seeds for Ukraine/Ukrainians of Colorado – a local NGO that helps us get added bags on partner airlines for free. Our first trip, we carried 18 bags of humanitarian aid out. When we traveled to Amsterdam over Christmas, we also took bags for them.

Social Media:

• we continue to put out information primarily on IG and Facebook using the Forca Ukraine accounts. This has gotten us some excellent traction in that space.

I believe that is all for now from my end. I have attached our mission brief from July in case you had not seen it yet. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you – Mike