How We’re Helping Communities Get First Aid Training This Fall
September means something different depending on where you live. In the US, it’s all about back-to-school shopping and back-to-work energy, a shared reset after summer. But in Ukraine, where the same seasonal shift is underway, preparation goes far beyond backpacks and planners. As colder weather sets in (winter temps as low as Chicago’s), families are bracing for more shelling of civilian areas, attacks that cause power outages, food shortages, and devastating civilian casualties.
Four years into this war, those casualties are still climbing. According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, the first half of 2026 alone brought 1,396 civilian deaths and 7,978 injuries—a 37% increase over the same period last year. Homes, playgrounds, and businesses have all been hit, often before medical teams can reach the scene. In those first critical minutes, it’s whoever’s already there—a kid, neighbor, coworker, or parent—who can make the difference. In these moments, first aid knowledge saves lives.
We’re helping to make sure everyone has the first aid skills they need.
Who’s Doing the Training
Since 2022, Nova Ukraine has equipped a wide network of partners across Ukraine with first aid kits, tourniquets, hemostatics, and other critical supplies that let medical teams stabilize patients in the field. But supplies are just the beginning: people need to know how to use them.
That’s where our first aid training partners come in. The Ukrainian Brotherhood and All Ukrainian Association Patriot both run hands-on, tactical first aid training for civilians across the country. Students, parents, athletes, and municipal workers learn how to stop severe bleeding, apply a tourniquet, pack a wound, and use a first aid kit under pressure. We fund the trainers and help purchase equipment, like mannequins and tourniquets, so our partners can teach people ages 12 to 60 exactly what to do in an emergency. It’s our HEAL pillar at work—and there’s no time to lose.
Ukrainian Brotherhood: Protecting Each Other
This summer, Nova Ukraine funded trainers and equipment for the Ukrainian Brotherhood, based in Kryvyi Rih, where in April 2025, Russian shelling struck a playground and killed 18 people. That kind of loss is part of why this organization treats training as something too urgent to wait on. We funded wound and burn simulators, a CPR mannequin, and materials for tourniquet and fracture-care practice, used in sessions across the country, including one this summer in Kharkiv, where a group of teenage athletes learned how to wrap a tourniquet on a teammate’s arm.
Patriot: Strengthening Communities
Since 2022, with Nova Ukraine’s support, Patriot has trained civilians across Kyiv and beyond, including a session held just before Ukraine’s Constitution Day this summer, funded through trainers, mannequins, and consumable materials we helped provide. Patriot puts it simply: “a strong community begins with people who know how to act correctly in emergency situations.”
Getting Ready, Together
Every September brings a version of the same instinct: time to prepare for what’s ahead. In Ukraine, that now includes learning how to save the life of the person next to you. We’re proud to help our partners keep teaching people how to do that, so our communities stay safer this winter.
