Kateryna (not her real name) is from Kryvyi Rih, currently living and looking for work in Poland. She found herself in the city of N in mid-March – until the last she did not want to leave her home. But when the Russian troops came close to Kryvyi Rih, and fighter aircrafts began to fly over the city itself, fear for her child took over, and she made a decision. On March 16, she reached Lviv, then took a train to Przemyśl.

In May, she has been taking therapy for two years, and at the time of her arrival in another country, she had ART until mid-April – Kateryna was lucky, just before leaving, it was time to take her next course for a month. However, what is next and who will be able to help with treatment, because there were no medical documents? The question remained open…

“The Kryvyi Rih AIDS Center has social workers who have clients assigned to them. I wrote to my own – Alexander (name changed), described the whole situation, asked what to do. He said that he would try to help, and literally on the same day sent me a link to a Facebook page about the #HelpNow service. First, I filled out a Google form and also wrote a message on Facebook – they quickly answered me, sent a document with information on countries where I could apply if I needed ART. I found the nearest city for me – Chorzów and went there.

Kateryna admits that she did not call the clinic before leaving, because she does not know Polish and was afraid that they would not understand her. Arriving early in the morning, she approached the guard at the entrance and read him the information from the file. The man immediately showed where she needed to go. After waiting in a short queue at the reception, the girl tried to explain the essence of her visit in bad Polish. She was greeted very kindly, listened attentively and confirmed – yes, she is at the right place. Help will be, the only thing is to wait until lunch, because of medical rounds. At noon the doctor will be able to consult. At the right time the girl was quickly registered and taken to the doctor. He carefully examined her, weighed her, checked her lymph nodes, asked in detail how long she had been taking therapy, whether she had any chronic illnesses, any complaints. Kateryna took therapy with her – the doctor said that there are no such medicines in Poland, but analogues are available and they are interchangeable, so when she will return home to Ukraine, she will be able to find the same therapy. He spoke Polish slowly and constantly asked if the girl understood everything. He even tried to find words in Russian, if he saw that she didn’t. At the end of the appointment, he scheduled a blood test in July, issued therapy for a month, and set the date for the next visit for ART.

“What is interesting is that in the client’s medical record they do not write down the name and surname, but assign a code. I didn’t see a name on any of them. The code must be protected and named only on the next visit. By the way, when filling out the record, you can specify a trusted person / persons who can come for therapy instead of client on the appointed date. This is very convenient, especially if you live far away or get a job and the schedule is not yet clear. Unfortunately, I have no one to point out, but I think it will be important for other Ukrainians to know. And I want to say thank you to your service: from the moment I contacted the #HelpNow service to the therapy handed out – a week!”