Natalia Kyrytsia is a paediatrician and infectious disease specialist who found her calling in volunteer work. She first thought about volunteering long before the war. Natalia recalls her experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, when representatives of the Ukrainian Red Cross visited their medical facility to teach them how to use personal protective equipment. At the time, she says, everything seemed a bit serious: the guests kept a metre’s distance and demonstrated all the procedures very carefully. However, it was then that Natalia became interested: “At the time, it seemed very exaggerated to me… but I realised that these were interesting people,” she recalls. Later, with the start of full-scale war, her desire to volunteer only grew stronger. Natalia decided it was time to act. In 2023, she was accepted into the ranks of volunteers. This is how she finally joined the volunteer movement, realising her long-held dream of helping people in times of crisis.
Motivation and drive for rapid response
Why did Natalia choose to volunteer despite having a medical practice? According to her, although the work of a paediatrician is associated with responsibility and stress, it did not give her the same level of “drive” that she found in volunteering. “My work involves risks and critical situations. But it’s a little less exciting than when you’re a volunteer, especially as a member of a rapid response team,” Natalia explains. She felt more fulfilled in volunteering, especially during emergency calls. Unlike routine medical work, where there is always time to think through decisions, volunteering often requires immediate reactions and composure in the here and now. This gave her a sense of the importance of the moment. Natalia admits that she feels fully fulfilled in rapid response and even grows professionally, gaining new experience in the field.
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Volunteer life: humanitarian missions and emergencies
In her volunteer work, Natalia combines two different roles. On the one hand, she is a volunteer with the Vyshgorod City District Organisation of the Ukrainian Red Cross. This work is calmer and involves direct assistance to beneficiaries: from sorting clothes in the “Clothing Bank” to distributing food packages and supporting internally displaced persons. The volunteer notes that it is important to be able to listen and provide emotional support to people. On the other hand, Natalia is a member of the rapid response team, a unit that responds to emergencies. This side of volunteering is full of extreme situations: “In the rapid response team, everything happens in the moment. We receive information, quickly gather, put on everything we need, and go to the scene,” she says. In addition to responding to emergencies, the team also performs other tasks: transporting people with limited mobility, standing guard at mass or sporting events to provide immediate assistance. Volunteers do not have a fixed schedule – everything happens as needed. “There is no fixed schedule. We act now, in the moment, as needed,” Natalia notes with a smile.
Balancing work, family and helping others
Combining a career as a doctor, family life and active volunteering seems almost impossible, but Natalia is an example of how, if you want to, you can find time for everything. “You can find time for everything if you want to. You can organise everything properly so that you don’t burn out anywhere,” she believes. Most of her day is taken up by her work at the hospital and university, but Natalia also devotes as much time as necessary to volunteering without feeling exhausted. Her secret is the rational use of time and clear prioritisation. The volunteer admits that sometimes she would like to devote even more energy to helping others, but she always maintains a balance so as not to harm either her professional or personal life.
Her family supports her calling. Natalia’s husband, although not a volunteer himself, helps her with some volunteer tasks whenever possible. She involves him in work that he can do, such as participating in local events. However, her husband has a slightly different character, Natalia smiles: while members of the rapid response team are able to act in critical situations, putting their emotions aside, her husband is more of an analyst who likes to think things through. Therefore, he avoids large-scale emergency calls. The couple’s son is still too young to volunteer, but Natalia hopes that her own example will inspire both her family and colleagues to get involved in good causes.
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Emotional challenges for volunteers
Volunteering during wartime is a deeply emotional experience. Natalia has encountered stories that leave a lasting impression. One of the most difficult areas of work is helping civilians evacuated from active combat zones. She often meets evacuation trains and accompanies people who have lost their homes and are forced to go nowhere. “Most of them leave with just one bag and leave everything behind,” says the volunteer about such displaced persons. “At first, these people treat us with caution and aloofness. They think: everything is fine here, how can you know anything about grief? But then, when you just talk to them about different topics, they begin to open up.” Behind the facade of restraint lie terrible losses: home, familiar places, normal life. When these people tell their stories, it is difficult even for an experienced volunteer to bear. At such moments, Natalia admits, she particularly appreciates the simple things – her own home, her family, the opportunity not to run away from the world. After each such meeting, she needs to talk about it – she comes home and shares what she has seen with her husband, who listens silently. It is a kind of therapy that helps her not to break down emotionally.
Another episode that will remain in Natalia’s memory forever took place during a volunteer mission in eastern Ukraine. She recalls a case when their team was tasked with transporting a wounded soldier. He had lost both legs, but remained surprisingly cheerful throughout the journey, joking and insisting that he would be fine. “He tried to be very optimistic, saying that everything was great, that he would figure it all out, and joking,” the volunteer describes that trip. However, at one point, the man’s phone rang – it was his mother calling. The soldier suddenly became disheartened: “God, what am I going to say? How am I going to tell her that I… have become a cripple?” Natalia quoted his confused words. Plucking up his courage, the young man picked up the phone and began talking to his mother in the same cheerful tone, without mentioning his injury. But as soon as the call ended, he cried. Natalia turned away so as not to upset him, and for the first time in all her time as a volunteer, she couldn’t hold back her tears. “No one saw those tears, but it was very emotionally difficult,” she adds quietly. Moments like these are the biggest challenge for volunteers. Despite all their experience and composure, communicating with broken souls at the very epicentre of tragedy tests their strength. However, according to Natalia, this is what further strengthens her determination to continue helping.
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Mission East: Aid on the front line
A special place in Natalia’s work is occupied by Mission East, a special mission of the Ukrainian Red Cross aimed at helping frontline areas. The volunteer speaks enthusiastically about her colleagues with whom she has worked there: “This project and the people involved in it are incredible. I mean it, they inspire me. I am proud to know each and every one of them.” Some of the team have been in the East since 2022, since the start of the full-scale invasion. The first volunteer rotations took place when a significant part of Donetsk Oblast and some settlements in Luhansk Oblast were still under Ukrainian control. The mission began with the evacuation of civilians and the delivery of humanitarian aid to frontline and de-occupied settlements. Over time, the range of tasks expanded, and volunteers began to evacuate people throughout the country. These included hospital patients, residents of nursing homes for the elderly, and pupils of specialised boarding schools — in short, those who needed to be evacuated en masse and with special care conditions. Natalia recounts her colleagues’ stories about one of the most difficult operations – the evacuation of children from a psychoneurological boarding school. The journey was long and exhausting: volunteers held the children in their arms for hours because they were clinging to them and crying, feeling anxious and unsettled by the change in their surroundings. Everyone admitted that it was a difficult emotional experience for the team. But despite the tension, volunteers always talk about their adventures with a smile and humour – it makes it easier to cope with the challenges.
The East mission also includes evacuating the wounded from stabilisation points to hospitals and transporting the seriously wounded between medical facilities.
The format of this work is rotational: one trip lasts about 16 days, after which volunteers return to rest and then head back east again two weeks later.
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Training volunteers and assigning roles
To become a volunteer with the Ukrainian Red Cross Rapid Response Team, desire alone is not enough – you must undergo mandatory training and prepare for various scenarios. Natalia explains that every new recruit undergoes a basic course: “Before starting work, every volunteer must undergo training in first aid, psychological first aid and, in fact, an introductory volunteer course to learn what the organisation does.” These training courses provide the necessary knowledge to enable people to help safely and effectively. Next comes continuous professional development: the organisation regularly holds additional classes, training sessions, and skills practice, so volunteers are constantly improving.
Special attention is paid to ensuring that everyone does their job. Since volunteering is voluntary, no one is forced to take on tasks that are beyond their capabilities. Team leaders are well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their team members. “If they know that a volunteer has a weakness — for example, they are not good at communicating with children — then, of course, they will not send them to communicate with children. They have other strengths and will be more useful in other work,” Natalia gives an example. This achieves a dual purpose: the volunteer feels more confident in their role, and the assistance is provided in the best possible way.
The Ukrainian Red Cross rapid response team in the Kyiv region, where Natalia volunteers, has about 20 active members – she considers them to be a true team of like-minded people. “These are people we trust each other… but there are about 20 active members we meet with regularly. Some people call our team a family.” Each of these twenty people is like a small part of a large mechanism that ensures a huge common cause. Harmony and mutual support within the team help to overcome any difficulties. Of course, conflicts sometimes arise – we are all people with different characters. But, according to Natalia, it is important to quickly remember the common goal and resolve misunderstandings. Sometimes it is enough to turn the problem into a joke or postpone it until the task is completed so that emotions subside. Ultimately, working together inspires and unites, so minor disagreements do not prevent volunteers from moving forward.
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Popular destinations and young volunteers
The volunteer movement offers many areas of activity, from extreme rescue in emergency situations to quiet everyday assistance. The Ukrainian Red Cross allows everyone to find something to their liking, regardless of their specialisation or character. Natalia confirms: “There are many areas, and whatever you are interested in, you will have the opportunity to realise your potential” – if you have the desire to work.
Despite the wide choice, young people are most attracted to the most extreme tasks. According to Natalia’s observations, the most popular among newcomers is the rapid response team – everyone who craves excitement and action wants to join it. Many, after seeing photos from emergency situations or hearing about the “East” mission, ask directly: can I go there too? The volunteer smiles in response: you will learn everything you need to know, and you will go, if you want to.
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