Today, ZDOROVI marks its 13th anniversary.

Over the past thirteen years, the organisation has evolved from a team helping healthcare facilities improve patient-centred services and implement organisational change into a charitable foundation working alongside hospitals, healthcare professionals, and communities across Ukraine.

While the scale of our work, areas of expertise, and challenges have changed dramatically, one belief has remained constant: that every person in Ukraine deserves access to modern, high-quality, people-centred healthcare.

Following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, ZDOROVI underwent the most profound transformation in its history. What began as an organisation focused on research, healthcare consulting, capacity building, and strategic development became a humanitarian responder delivering medical relief, supporting hospitals, strengthening mental health services, leading advocacy initiatives, coordinating large-scale medical procurement, and building long-term partnerships that continue to strengthen Ukraine's health system today.

Behind every milestone are the people who made it possible: our team, healthcare professionals, partners, donors, and communities who chose to build this journey together.

To mark ZDOROVI's 13th anniversary, we spoke with Natalia Tulinova, Founder and CEO of ZDOROVI, about where it all began, how 2022 reshaped the organisation forever, the moments that define its story, and her vision for Ukraine's healthcare system by 2030.

Looking back 13 years, how did ZDOROVI begin? What inspired you to create the organisation?

For many years, I held a senior leadership position within a large private healthcare organisation. It gave me the opportunity to see how modern, efficient, patient-centred healthcare systems operate—guided by internationally recognised clinical standards, clear processes, and respect for every patient. At the same time, I could not accept that this was not the reality for much of Ukraine's healthcare system. It was painful to see a system that was often outdated, slow, impersonal, and not always designed around people's needs. I firmly believed that every person deserves timely, high-quality, and dignified medical care. At one point, I realised something very simple: if I wanted to see a different healthcare system, I had to become part of creating it instead of waiting for someone else to do it. Only then could I truly say that I had done everything I could to make a difference. Thirteen years ago, ZDOROVI started as a healthcare consulting agency specialising in patient-centred service design, healthcare research, educational programmes supporting health sector reform, and professional monitoring and evaluation aimed at improving healthcare strategies and institutional development. We worked alongside organisations including USAID, GIZ, and UNICEF, helping healthcare facilities understand how they functioned—not only from a management perspective but through the experiences of both healthcare professionals and patients. Whenever we entered a hospital, we carefully analysed every aspect of its work: staff performance, patient needs, expectations, frustrations, institutional capacity, and future opportunities. Based on this evidence, we developed tailored strategies to strengthen healthcare delivery. At the time, none of us could have imagined where this commitment to healthcare professionals, patients, and meaningful system change would eventually lead us.

Russia's full-scale invasion became a turning point for many organisations. How did it transform ZDOROVI?

Everything changed on the morning of 24 February 2022. At around nine o'clock that morning, I published a simple message on social media asking one question: "Which hospitals are currently treating wounded patients?" Within just a few hours, more than 400 comments appeared beneath that post. Almost every second message described the same reality: hospitals running out of surgical supplies, medical reserves rapidly depleting, healthcare workers facing enormous uncertainty, and systems struggling to cope with an entirely new reality. That very night, I wrote to every international organisation I knew. In that moment, everything we had been doing before—strategic consulting, research projects, educational programmes, audits, and commercial activities—came to a complete stop. None of it mattered anymore. There was only one question left to answer: What do people in hospitals need right now? That was the moment ZDOROVI fundamentally changed. We shifted from advising healthcare institutions to becoming part of Ukraine's humanitarian health response—working directly with hospitals, coordinating emergency medical assistance, building humanitarian supply chains, and responding to urgent needs as they emerged. From that point onward, our mission was no longer simply about improving healthcare systems. It became about helping those systems continue to function under the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

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Looking back over these 13 years, what makes you most proud of ZDOROVI?

Numbers alone have never impressed me, even though ZDOROVI's achievements can certainly be measured in numbers. What truly stays with me are the people. I think of Olena Kukharets, our Project Director, who built an entirely new humanitarian logistics system within days, despite having no warehouses, no previous experience, and no roadmap for how such an operation should work. I think of Valeriia Sereda, our Advocacy Manager, who manually tracked every delivery, maintained countless records, and wrote so many reports and donor updates that they could fill an entire book. I think of Tetiana Kuzmenko and Iryna Pashkevych, our Programme Managers, who from the very first days of the full-scale invasion began coordinating directly with hospitals in some of Ukraine's most challenging regions—and continue to do so despite the risks. I think of Vitalii Pryhornytskyi, our Programme Director, who rapidly developed a system for verifying humanitarian needs and analysing regional healthcare data. And I think of Yelyzaveta Nepyipyvo, Head of our Expert Office, who evacuated from occupied Kherson after passing through numerous checkpoints and, only a few months later, had already established a comprehensive system for monitoring humanitarian deliveries and later led the development of transparent, professional procurement processes. This is what ZDOROVI means to me. It is not buildings. It is not projects. It is not statistics. It is people who trust me as their leader—and whom I trust as professionals. That mutual trust is the foundation on which everything else has been built.

Finally, what would you like to say to your team, partners, donors, and everyone who has been part of ZDOROVI's journey over the past 13 years?

You stayed beside me through moments of uncertainty, when none of us knew what the next day would bring—or whether there would even be a tomorrow as we had known it. Many of you entrusted us with millions of dollars in funding and invaluable humanitarian resources long before we had ever met in person. That level of trust is something I will never take for granted. Thank you for believing in our mission. Thank you for refusing to give up, even when circumstances made it seem impossible to continue. Most of all, thank you for the extraordinary lessons in humanity, resilience, and solidarity that you have taught me over these thirteen years. My deepest gratitude goes to every one of you.