The 3rd Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, founded by Olena Zelenska, the wife of the President of Ukraine, took place in Kyiv.
It is an international dialog platform for spouses of the world's top leaders, launched in 2021 to share experiences and implement joint projects for the well-being of people on the planet. The first and second summits took place in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The theme of the 3rd Summit is "Mental Health: Fragility and Resilience of the Future".
“It has long been an axiom for all conscious people, at least in the free world, that human life is important. It's time to make it an axiom that its quality is also important. And mental health is the basis of this quality. A life of constant anxiety, fear, and uncertainty cannot be called of high quality,” Olena Zelenska noted.
The third Summit, held at St. Sophia of Kyiv National Reserve, was attended by 29 participants in person or via video conference, including the First Lady of the Republic of Lithuania, Diana Nausėdienė.
The third Summit was hosted by British actor, director, and writer Stephen Fry and Ukrainian journalist Hanna Homonai.
The summit consisted of three panels: "Mental Health: The Balance of Resilience and Fragility", "The Impact of War on Mental Health", and "The Generation That Will Lead the World in 15 Years".
Diana Nausėdienė took part in the discussion on how to maintain mental health in times of war as part of the second panel of the summit moderated by Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist.
At the Mental Stage, a special additional location of this year's Summit, hosted by Timur Miroshnychenko and attended by Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko and ministers of health from various countries, including Lithuania, Estonia and Moldova, a presentation of the international medical partnership project launched under the patronage of the First Ladies and Gentlemen Summit was held.
The participants noted that due to the full-scale war, our medical system is suffering every day, with 1427 medical facilities damaged and another 189 destroyed. Therefore, medical institutions need support to develop and provide quality care to Ukrainians.
As part of the 3rd Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, 25 memoranda of medical partnership were signed. This means that Ukrainian hospitals have 25 "sisters" in different parts of the world with whom they can cooperate and share experiences.
Eight medical institutions from France, two each from Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, and North Macedonia, as well as leading hospitals in Poland, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Canada, Israel, and the Netherlands became partners of Ukrainian medical institutions.
The Ukrainian partners will include hospitals in Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Lviv, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Zakarpattia regions.
Children's hospitals have entered into partnerships with institutions in Denmark, the Netherlands, Israel, Spain, Latvia, Poland, France, and rehabilitation centers have entered into partnerships with hospitals in Lithuania, Latvia, and Sweden. Medical institutions providing mental health services will cooperate with medical institutions in France, North Macedonia, and Canada. University and multidisciplinary hospitals have entered into partnerships with Austria, Ireland, Estonia, North Macedonia, and Moldova.
"We have set a goal for each Summit to have a practical result. Last year, by bringing together caring people from all over the world, we were able to raise more than $6 million, which allowed us to purchase 92 modern mobile ICUs that are now saving lives of Ukrainians. This year, one of the outcomes of the Summit was the establishment of a network of medical partnerships between countries. We will save even more lives. So, with gratitude, with hope, with faith in people and in love, we share our resilience with the world today," the wife of the President of Ukraine summarized.
Watch the broadcast of the third Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxoNce4u_C8
