06/09/2026
We celebrate two Trillium Health Partners nurses – Natalia Sumalo-Tsap and Elena Petretchenko – who stepped forward to provide critical medical care in Ukraine.
Since 2014, Natalia Sumalo-Tsap has completed 12 humanitarian deployments through the Canada Ukraine Foundation and the Canada Ukraine Surgical Aid Program – providing surgical care to patients suffering from traumatic injuries caused by bullets, shrapnel, and explosions. Her most recent medical mission was this past April.
Elena Petretchenko deployed to western Ukraine in May 2022 with Canadian Medical Assistance Teams. Each day, they left their headquarters in Poland, crossed the border and provided medical care in mobile clinics in Volyn Oblast.
She and the health care team treated patients facing both physical injuries and severe emotional trauma – “focusing on delivering primary health care, family medicine, and mental health support for internally displaced Ukrainians.”
It is the same spirit of generosity that drives Trillium Health Partners Foundation donors, whose contributions help fund the programs, equipment, and services that make this level of care possible.
Since 2022, Trillium Health Partners has cared for many Ukrainian refugees arriving in the Greater Toronto Area, patients who carry both physical and psychological scars of war.
Your donation to Trillium Health Partners Foundation helps with things like the trauma care, mental health support, and newcomer health services that Ukrainian refugees and patients depend on right after they arrive in our community.
Learn more about Natalia and Elena’s humanitarian work here: https://trilliumgiving.ca/stories/nurses-ukraine-frontlines-humanitarian-mission