Elizabeth’s Letter From Kyiv

A letter from our CEO, Elizabeth Ames, on her most recent trip to Kyiv:  

Dear Friends, 

I’m sitting here reflecting on my three weeks in Kyiv, slightly dazed by a 72-hour journey back to the States.  It was a challenging, good trip.  

Kyiv doesn’t seem like a city at war, but it is.  Scratch the surface and you see it everywhere. Everyone’s changed.  One old friend said, poignantly, when I asked him what made him saddest, “I’ve lost my past.  We’ve lost our past.”  His words reminded me of accounts of the summers of 1914 and 1939 being described as a golden time cast in amber, gone forever.  This war has changed everything.   

It was also a hugely productive trip that confirmed for me that Heal Ukraine Trauma (HUT)’s mission, vision, and our operating model are exactly correct.  I went to Kyiv to work with our Ukrainian partner organizations who we are working with to implement programs that serve both children and families as well as veterans and first responders.   

This included supporting our partner Ukrainian Psychedelic Research Association (UPRA) in preparing for Ukraine’s first conference on the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) for the treatment of severe PTSD in veterans and first responders and working with our partner NGO, “Volunteers”, implementing a program to teach children mind-body therapies.  

I saw compelling success from HUT’s initiatives.  The UPRA conference, sponsored by HUT, was a groundbreaking medical conference supported by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and held at a leading military rehabilitation hospital. 

Veterans spoke of their personal experiences and global health experts shared compelling clinical data demonstrating the benefit of PAT for severe PTSD. 

I saw compelling success from HUT’s initiatives.  The UPRA conference, sponsored by HUT, was a groundbreaking medical conference supported by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and held at a leading military rehabilitation hospital.  Veterans spoke of their personal experiences and global health experts shared compelling clinical data demonstrating the benefit of PAT for severe PTSD.  The data presented will support the first PAT submission to the FDA later this year, with potential approval in the U.S. next year.  And in central Ukraine, in an evidence-based HUT-supported program, 500 children will learn how to process traumatic memories, an important guardrail against the onset of mental disorders.  

I can’t tell you how proud we are to have successfully launched programs with this level of impact in such a challenging operating environment. 

Here are a few more stories and images from my trip to give you a flavor for Kyiv today:  

There’s an exhibit on St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery Plaza of bombed out Russian tanks, rockets, and vehicles.  Kids played on them, and teens climbed all over the tanks. 

Patriotism is a completely reflexive and natural part of life in Ukraine these days. 

One night, a Kinzhal hypersonic missile was shot down not far from where I was staying.  I leaned out the window to see crowds looking to the sky, clustered around the metro entrance. 

As the gunfire began and I put on my shoes, the most beautiful baritone voice rose from the crowd across the street as a man began to sing the national anthem acapella. 

In that moment, I was not afraid.  Experiencing Kyiv without a filter of hypervigilance was amazingly beautiful.  As someone who was so profoundly affected living through 25 years of PTSD, it was a very, very special thing: I was able to embrace the beauty and learning of the moment rather than feeling fear.  

May we all feel life’s beauty around us.  May we all live without fear.   

There are two things I heard multiple times that moved me equally on this trip.  When strangers met me the first time, they would shake my hand, look me in the eye, and with deep, furry expression in their voices say, “God bless the United States of America.”  Just imagine.  

The other came seeing friends-like-family I’ve known for 30-plus years, who stuck like glue during those long-ago hard times in ’92-’93 when world-record hyperinflation and shortages were so severe it really did not matter that I had hard currency.  It was always the same goodbye: “Thank you for coming.  Thank you for not forgetting us.”  Imagine that too.  I choked up every time.  

In 1992 I saw examples of mental health conditions that went back to WW2 and before.  My "a-ha" moment was without treatment and a different approach, the Ukrainian population would be suffering in similar number in 50 years, no matter the outcome of the war itself.  I don't think you do a startup based only on metrics. 

I am so proud of and truly honored to be part of HUT’s amazing team, working with our Ukrainian partners and colleagues to help rewrite Ukraine's history of post-conflict mental health outcomes.  

Ukraine is a country of brilliant, sophisticated, imaginative and above all, patriotic individuals who never asked for the death and destruction Russia continues to rain down:  

"Thank you for not forgetting us."     

So gratefully,   

Liz xx  

(Elizabeth Ames, CEO and Co-founder)