On September 13, 2024, the team of the project “European Studies for Technical Specialties at Lviv Polytechnic National University (EUSTS)” conducted a public tour “What has been done or co-financed by the EU?” for 46 first-year students of International Relations. The students visited the National Rehabilitation Center UNBROKEN, an ecosystem of support and care for people whose lives have been dramatically changed by war.
UNBROKEN is a complex of buildings located at the First Medical Association of Lviv: several buildings of the rehabilitation center, a hospital, post-hospital care homes, a prosthetics and orthotics center, research and training centers, as well as a number of social facilities, such as residences for patients and their families, a kindergarten, a school, and a park.
With its departments of reconstructive surgery, orthopedics, psychological, psychosocial and physical rehabilitation, and burn trauma, the center aims to serve 50,000 patients and perform more than 10,000 surgeries annually.
UNBROKEN’s Bohdan and Yana told the tour participants that the project is being implemented with the support of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine, the Lviv Regional Military Administration, and the Lviv City Council. They also said that the idea of the project has captured the imagination of a large number of donors from different countries who, united in their desire to help Ukrainians in such a difficult time, have allocated a significant amount of charitable, humanitarian and financial assistance for the construction and furnishing of the Center.
Lviv’s sister cities supported the UNBROKEN project. In particular, Vilnius donated 700 thousand euros, Freiburg 500 thousand euros, Wroclaw 1 million zlotys, Warsaw 420 thousand euros, the German government a 10 million euro ribbon, and so on. Each of the partners involved in the renovation has a floor dedicated to them in the Unbroken building.
At the same time, the center is being built in accordance with modern requirements for energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness. For example, this is the first facility in Ukraine to use new architectural technologies, such as FACID fabric facades.
The city of Lviv initiated the creation of the UNBROKEN Cities Network, an association of cities from around the world to support and develop rehabilitation in Ukraine. The city of Würzburg, together with a local charitable foundation, joined the initiative and financed the purchase of equipment for children's rehabilitation worth 500,000 euros.
The students were also shown the process of building new social housing for internally displaced persons with disabilities. This project “Housing for IDPs and restoration of liberated cities of Ukraine” was launched on November 29, 2023. It is implemented by the Lviv City Council with funding from the European Union in Ukraine, managed by Nefco in Ukraine and implemented by the Lviv City Team. The European Commission has allocated 20 million euros in grants for the construction of housing.
The participants of the tour had the opportunity to see the entire infrastructure of the center, expensive medical equipment, special rooms and visit the Unbreakable Mental Recovery Center. For example, they visited the “Occupational Therapy Apartment”, complete with a kitchen, where patients learn to care for themselves in the most home-like setting possible. Occupational therapists teach the Unbreakables how to hold a toothbrush or pencil, eat, dress, iron, shop, etc.
The students also had the unique opportunity to visit the Center for Prosthetics and Orthotics and see with their own eyes how the prosthetic process works, from measurement to the finished prosthesis. During the construction of the center, special attention was paid to innovation, sustainable development and energy efficiency. The building was constructed with innovative CLT panels. LG heat pumps and EFFI radiant ceiling panels are used to heat the center. The roof is equipped with a “green” ZinCo roof that collects rainwater and gradually releases it into the city's storm water system. The courtyard is equipped with a snow melting system. The initiative was implemented as part of the EU4ResilientRegions Special Support Program for Ukraine and was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development with co-financing from the European Union. The project was also made possible with the support of GIZ Ukraine.
Along with the students, the curator of the MB-12 group, Yulia Lemko, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, the curator of the MB-14 group, Iryna Sukhorolska, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, EUSTS project participant, and members of the EUSTS project team took part in the tour: Yaryna Turchyn, Director of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Lidia Kasha, Associate Professor of the Department of Electromchatronics and Computerized Electromechanical Systems, Oleksandr Markovets, Head of the Department of Social Communication and Information Activity, Natalia Vovk, Associate Professor of the Department of Social Communication and Information Activity, Olha Ivasechko, Oleh Tsebenko, Olena Lukachuk, Associate Professors of the Department of Political Science and International Relations.
The EUSTS project team would like to thank the management and all the staff of the National Rehabilitation Center UNBROKEN for an interesting and much-needed excursion and the lesson of unbreakability for our Lviv Polytechnic students.
The event was held within the framework of the project European Studies for Technical Specialties at Lviv Polytechnic National University (EUSTS) with the support of the EU Erasmus+ Jean Monnet program.
More information about EUSTS can be found on the project website within the Lviv Polytechnic Portal.
