(NewsNation) — A hard decision turned into an unbelievable journey for one boy trying to escape from Ukraine.
The boy, only 10 years old, was trying to leave the dire situation in Ukraine, resulting from endless attacks on the country from Russian troops. But because adult men are not allowed to leave the country, and his mother didn’t want to leave the boy’s brother, 19 and father behind, the family chose to send the 10-year-old to the Moldovan border on his own, in an attempt to connect with a half-Jewish sister in Israel.
He traveled for miles on buses and trains, until he got to his destination, found a medic with United Hatzalah of Israel, and was reunited with his extended family.
This is just one of many stories United Hatzalah, an Israeli emergency medical services organization, has heard since going to Ukraine, where they are helping people attempting to evacuate. Nearly 3 million people have been displaced since the Russian offensive began, according to the International Organization for Migration
So far, United Hatzalah has helped 15,000 Ukrainian refugees, usually serving 6,000 meals a day with the help of 150 medics.
United Hatzalah’s teams are dispatched to emergencies and disasters all around the world. The group immediately dispatched a team to arrive on the ground 20 days ago, when the war first broke out, Gavy Friedson, the group’s director of international emergency management, said.
“We are helping anybody that needs it,” Friedson said.
Once the team got to the border of Ukraine and Moldova, they set up field hospitals and started treating people. Since the team of more than 150 medics, EMTs, paramedics, doctors and nurses has been stationed there, they’ve treated over 15,000 refugees, and the numbers of people needing assistance continue to grow.
“There’s some powerful stories coming out,” Friedson said. “They’re hungry, they’re cold, they’ve been traveling for days, and the crisis is only just going to get worse.”
United Hatzalah has been giving out about 6,000 meals a day. By the end of the week, they’ll have 11 airplanes with about 2,000 refugees who will be flown back to Israel either temporarily or on a more permanent basis.
Once in Israel, United Hatzalah continues to have close ties with the refugees and works on getting them processed and to safety.
It has been a complicated challenge at times. One volunteer dealt with a situation in which a surrogate mom, carrying a child for Israeli parents, delivered the baby and ran away from the hospital to be with her family.
“We created a mission and we literally had to work with all the different governments in four different countries from Moldova, Romania to the border,” Friedson said. “It’s unbelievable what they had to go through to get this baby out.”
Dealing with officials who didn’t understand why the parents weren’t with the child wasn’t easy, but the family was eventually reunited with their 2-year-old.
“What a miracle,” Friedson said.
To help with United Hatzalah’s mission, go to their website, www.israelrescue.org.
Contributions are greatly needed, Friedson said, emphasizing that they help people from all walks of life.
“I’m just afraid the numbers are going to continue to grow,” he said. “Even with the money that we’re raising, we’re managing to use all the supplies every single day. ”