European Private Hospital Awards (EPHA) 2025
The winner in the category: Healthcare Resilience and Crisis Management
OK NOVYI ZIR, LLC & Eximer-Kyiv, LLC brings free ophthalmological care to areas close to the front line. Through fully equipped mobile units, volunteer doctors examine, treat and provide glasses and medication to both civilians and soldiers, preserving not only sight, but dignity. A mission of light and humanity in darkest of times.
What makes your project so special?
During our mobile ophthalmological visits, we encounter stories that make us smile and stories that break our hearts:
– a woman from a frontline town, grateful because she couldn’t evacuate, and our doctor examined both her elderly mother and her 10-year-old daughter;
– an older man is a driver who couldn’t drive the car for few years because he had no glasses
– a soldier who accidentally injured his comrade because he could not clearly see who stood in front of him
– a man who, during night missions, saw so poorly that he held on to his friend’s backpack just to avoid getting lost in the darkness.
We make our mobile ophthalmological missions for stories like these (shaped by danger, discomfort, and lack of access to care) become fewer. So that every person can see clearly, and their eyes stay healthy, now and even after the war.Healthy vision means safety, precision, and survival. On the frontline, what you see and how well you see determines not only your own effectiveness, but also the lives of your comrades.
Through our conversations with the military personnels we understand that we are helping build an ecosystem where a soldier is not just a combat unit, but a human being.What does this award mean to you and your teams?
Life in Ukraine today is a completely different reality. Destroyed infrastructure, ballistic missile attacks, nights spent in shelters with our children… All of this has become our everyday routine. And despite everything, we continue to live, work, and build modern medicine. Our project was born as an internal response to these circumstances.
This award is a reminder that we are not victims of the war and we are fighting. It is more than recognition. It is a signal that our path is seen, understood, and supported.
Being present in the international space gives us the opportunity to speak the truth on behalf of our country – about what our people are doing to endure, to help one another.
This award belongs to our entire team: the charitable foundation, the nurses, the doctors, the surgeons. They are the ones who restore sight (and hope!) to people.
We are endlessly grateful to every European who believes in us and stands with Ukraine. Your support gives us the strength to move forward.
The project
Our mission is to raise public awareness about how eyesight impacts the civilian’s and military’s personnel life quality
Objectives:
The main goal of our activity is to preserve and make vision restoration for civilians, who live near the frontline and military personnel, who protect Ukraine
Key components of the project include:
- Deployment of Mobile Ophthalmic Units – fully equipped vehicles with diagnostic and treatment tools to reach remote or affected areas.
- Professional Response Team – trained ophthalmologists and support staff ready for immediate deployment.
- Referral Protocols – for assessing patients on-site and referring urgent cases to hospitals.
- Coordination with Local Authorities – to identify priority zones and integrate efforts.
- Supply Chain Resilience – ensuring the availability of medical supplies and equipment under disrupted conditions.
- Data Collection & Monitoring – tracking service delivery and patient outcomes to adjust interventions in real-time.
The project strengthens the hospital’s capacity to deliver life-changing eye care in times of crisis, prioritizing equity, accessibility, and speed.
Expected Results:
During each mission, 300 patients are examined!
Since the full scale war started, the project has already made 7 visits (missions) and thoroughly examined 2265 patients in 18 towns of Donetsk, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions (first two of them is partially occupied territories)
