Reflets Magazine #147 | Michel Terestchenko (E79): "The Rebuilding of Ukraine is Already Under Way"

In Reflets Magazine #147, Michel Terestchenko (E79) updates us on the aid provided by ESSEC Alumni and ESSEC to the Friends of Okhmadyt, which he founded to support the Okhmadyt children’s hospital in Kiev, and describes life in the Ukrainian capital since the start of the war. Here is a free online translation of the article… subscribe to get the next issues (in French)!

Reflets Magazine: Several actions involving ESSEC Alumni, in coordination with other schools, have been led since the start of the war. Can you outline these actions and their impact?

Michel Terestchenko: ESSEC Alumni has been actively supporting Ukrainians in the most difficult moments, whether refugees, displaced persons, the wounded or ill. ESSEC graduates in particular have been remarkably active and I would like to thank them all. Many events were organised with enthusiasm and generosity by a highly driven and creative team. With regard to our organisation, the Friends of Ochmadyt, these fundraisers enabled us to re-equip an operating theatre for out-patient surgery. In fact, during the most critical moments, the three main operating theatres were so crowded that sometimes several children at once were undergoing an operation in the same theatre. 30 years ago, an independent ‘polyclinic’ theatre was shut down and dismantled, and thus was no longer included in the hospital’s budget. The director of Okhmadyt asked us for help in rehabilitating this theatre, and thanks to ESSEC Alumni donations, we created the electricity, oxygen and cryogenic circuits. The theatre is now used for minor operations and stomatology, which frees up the main theatres. Our organisation assists the hospital with everything that is excluded from its budget, in other words, everything the director, Volodymyr Zhovnir, cannot officially draw from the State fund. We were also able to intervene rapidly this winter to repair a generator.

RM: Tell us more about Okhmadyt children’s hospital...

M. Terestchenko: Okhmadyt/Oxhmatdet (‘OXrana MATeri i DETei’ = ‘Mother and Child Safety’) is undoubtedly the world’s largest children’s hospital. Covering 6 ha in the centre of Kiev, it has always provided free care. It was built in 1893 by my great-great-grandparents, Pelagie and Nikola Terestchenko, and down throughout centuries, wars and revolutions, it has saved millions of lives.  It regularly performs more than 20,000 operations per year, for the most part serious or very serious, and is presently equipped to carry out up to 32,000, thanks to a new building inaugurated 2 years ago. It is certainly the hospital with the widest experience in child oncology, due to its contribution in the post-Chernobyl years. It was thus an honour and a responsibility for me to found and run the Friends of Okhmadyt.

RM: How has the hospital fared since the start of the war?

M. Terestchenko: At present, almost all the male medical employees are at the front, and the hospital is now run primarily by female staff. Many nurses chose not to flee abroad and to stay during the days when Kiev was besieged, bombed and at risk of falling to Russia. Many children were initially evacuated to Lviv, in the west of Ukraine, and to European countries including France. The situation is returning to normal however, as children gradually come back to Ukraine, and we expect a large influx in July 2023, when the school year ends and many mothers decide to return to their Ukrainian home.

RM: How can ESSEC Alumni, or alumni more directly, get involved in supporting Ukrainian alumni, or helping victims of the war?

M. Terestchenko: If the war endures, it will become more destructive with the use, on both sides, of increasingly sophisticated equipment. In this case, the risk for us will be an ‘exhausted Ukraine’, with a slowdown in volunteer aid from Europe and the USA. I’d thus ask ESSEC Alumni not to lose their drive and remain attentive to the needs of Ukrainians in terms of healthcare and force of resistance.

RM: After a little over one year of war, how is the population holding up?

M. Terestchenko: The population is remarkable, but a large portion of the economy has slowed down. The moment of truth will come at the end of this school year, in July. Will families start returning with their children? It is essential they return to restart the economy, because right now men are at the war front, and mothers and children abroad. The economy is barely turning. In addition, in order to return and forego the refugee welfare aid, medical insurance and free schooling which Europe generously provided, in order to leave the job and good salary which some refugees have already managed to find abroad, they must at least be able to return to their jobs in Ukraine, which very often no longer exist. If families don’t return, if children begin a third school year in another country, having learnt another language, this will represent an enormous loss in manpower for Ukraine. And when the war finally ends, who can say the men won’t decide to join the rest of their family already settled in Poland, Germany or France?

RM: What about you and your loved ones?

M. Terestchenko: I live in Kiev with my wife and son. We feel safe thanks to the American Patriot batteries who protect us, and Ukraine’s capital has become a safer place to be. 

RM: Where are you right now, and what are you doing?

M. Terestchenko: With the advice of the London office of the EBRD we’re negotiating to obtain funding for our project to create Europe’s largest hemp plantation, 200km west of Kiev, for the textile fibre sector. This will provide a European alternative to Chinese hemp fibre for weaving in France, Belgium, Italy or Poland. The project represents one of the first concrete efforts for the rebuilding of Ukraine, and I am proud to be its CEO.

RM: Is it not too early to be talking of rebuilding?

M. Terestchenko: Absolutely not. The rebuilding of Ukraine is already under way. For the moment, and until the end of the war, private investment is scarce, even if insurance against war damage and force majeur is already available. However, major financial institutions, and mainly those with American decision-makers, are doing a great deal of work. They support all valid projects, whether American, European, Japanese or Arab, with solid determination. French companies seem more cautious, perhaps because some have not ceased all their business with Russia. The French-Ukrainian chamber of commerce and industry has remained highly active and created a ‘Rebuilding’ office, for which it hired three talented French and Ukrainian junior executives. They represent an excellent first contact for anyone wishing to participate in the great effort to rebuild the country. There should be no shortage of funds, because in addition to an abundance of Western aid, there is talk of enormous sums in compensation.

Interview by François de Guillebon,  Chief Editor at Reflets Magazine and Veary Ngy,  Head of International Community
Translation of an article published in Reflets Magazine #147. Read a preview (in French). Get the next issues (in French).