Anna works as a pharmacist within Atlas Logistique's platforms in Ukraine, here in the temperature-controlled room of Atlas Logistique’s warehouse in Dnipro. | © Hlib Kostenko / HI
Anna works as a pharmacist within Atlas Logistique's platforms in Ukraine, here in the temperature-controlled room of Atlas Logistique’s warehouse in Dnipro. | © Hlib Kostenko / HI
Anna works as a pharmacist within HI’s Atlas Logistique team in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Atlas Logistique is one of HI's operational units, specialising in the delivery of aid, supporting organisations and the humanitarian system. In Ukraine, HI currently operates three logistics hubs in the cities of Dnipro, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, ensuring the delivery of humanitarian goods on behalf of other organisations throughout the country, with a focus on hard-to-reach areas close to the frontline in eastern and southern Ukraine.
This includes the storage and transport of temperature-sensitive items, such as medicines, an expertise that HI has deployed in Ukraine since the summer of 2022. As a pharmacist in the Atlas Logistique team in Ukraine, Anna is responsible for ensuring that the medicines stored and/or transported by Atlas Logistique on behalf of its partners, are properly preserved. By providing these services to other humanitarian organisations, HI, through the Atlas Logistique component of its intervention, contributes to the logistics chain of medicines and medical supplies in Ukraine to health facilities sometimes located just a few kilometres from the front line.
"It is essential to have a good knowledge of the different pharmaceutical products and to carefully control their quality and keep them in the right conditions at all times so that they are safe to use", explains Anna.
Paracetamol, insulin, chemotherapy drugs... the list of products Atlas Logistique stores and transports on behalf of its partners is varied. Anna and the Atlas Logistique teams are able to store and transport medicines that Ukrainian health facilities need in order to treat people in need of medical assistance.
"The most important thing is to control humidity and temperature. These requirements vary depending on the type of drug and the manufacturer, but these parameters must be maintained 24 hours a day. We also have to maintain all of the equipment regularly, such as refrigerators, air conditioners and dehumidifiers".
When Atlas Logistique also delivers these medicines on behalf of its partners to their destination areas, for donation to health facilities most of the time, the medicines are carefully prepared and packaged before being loaded into the truck, while carefully maintaining the required temperature during the loading process, i.e. between 2 and 8 degrees or between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius. When the outside temperature is different from the required temperature range, i.e. during winter or summer, it is essential to remain particularly cautious in this regard not to damage the medicines when preparing the deliveries or when receiving medical cargo in one of the Atlas Logistique warehouses.
At school, Anna already loved biology. She could never have imagined that one day she would be responsible for storing and preserving medicines for people in need of humanitarian medical assistance in her own country.
"I have always been interested in how the world works, especially human world. During my studies, I fell in love with medicine and everything related to it, especially pharmacology. I really wanted to be able to help people," she says.
In the future, Anna hopes to continue developing her skills in the humanitarian field. She can already see herself working as a pharmacist in other countries in crisis, where people have difficulty accessing quality medicines or treatment.
In 2023-2024, HI’s Atlas Logistique activities are implemented in Ukraine thanks to the support of the European Union, the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Aktion Deutschland Hilft (ADH) and the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs.
