The job regained after escaping the war and months spent doing emergency work, from housemaid to carer to dishwasher. The possibility of having your qualification recognized in our country too and learning the Italian language.
It’s the story with a happy ending fourteen Ukrainian pharmacists (all women because the men must remain at the disposal of the State and cannot leave the country), who arrived in Italy after the outbreak of the war, to whom the Milanese company Hippocrates Holding, which manages a chain of pharmacies, has offered the possibility of returning to doing their job as pharmacists by hiring them and placing them in the group’s sales points located in Lombardy, Veneto, Marche and Friuli-Venezia Giulia with different roles, from collaborators to employees sales and warehouse.
A concrete aid project made possible thanks to the close collaboration between the Italian and Ukrainian diplomatic authorities. Oksana Ushkalenko29 years old, in Italy for two years, says he “has improved his life considerably” and hopes that he will never have to face such a difficult period again. In his country, where he worked as pharmacy manager and purchasing manager in a company that was a leader in the pharmaceutical distribution sector, he had good prospects for professional growth which unfortunately he had to abandon when the conflict began. In Italy she first worked as a carer, waitress and dishwasher and then, thanks to Hippocrates’ “Ukraine Project”, she returned to doing her job. Since last May 1st Oksana has been working in Lafarmacia.Tintori (one of the group’s offices), she continues study the language and is proceeding with the recognition of his pharmacist diploma in Italy.
Olha Barhan, 37 years old, she arrived in Italy in March 2022 with her nine-year-old daughter. She had friends who offered her help and welcomed her, then she started studying the language and after a few months she found work in a bar in Padua. Having made a career in Ukraine from pharmacist’s assistant to pharmacy manager, a role she held for the last eleven years before the war, Olha felt the desire to return to her previous role: «When I heard about Hippocrates’ project, I decided to try and it went well“, explains. Since last July 8th he has been working behind the counter, continues to study the language and is proceeding with the recognition of his diploma in Italy.
Pavlyna Holban, 36 years old, she was working as a waitress in a restaurant trying to learn the language before this opportunity arose.
Oksana Odynska, 42 years old, two degrees obtained in Ukraine (one in linguistics and the other in pharmacy) lived in Ivano-Frankivs’k, where for the past five years she has held the role of director of a 24-hour pharmacy in the city centre. Then she fled to Italy. «Moving to a new country, without knowing the language and without support, and without knowing how long this war would last, was very difficult», he says, «I gradually managed to stabilize. My son has started secondary school. After learning the language a little, I found a job as a warehouse worker in a pharmacy. However, due to complicated bureaucratic aspects related to the renewal of the residence permit for refugees, my contract was not renewed and I had to resume the search for a new job.” She also now works in a group pharmacy and is waiting for the date to schedule the interview to obtain the PEQR, i.e. the equivalent qualification.
In addition to hiring them, the company made arrangements for them intensive language courses on the job, offered bureaucratic and administrative assistance to equalize qualifications and obtain residence permits for refugees. In some cases, temporary accommodation and help for dependent children were also offered.
Also involved in the project was Maryna Khomenko, a doctor in Pharmacy and with administrative experience at the Ukrainian consulate in Italy, who since April has joined the “Lafarmacia” team to assist candidates with all bureaucratic activities, manage relations with diplomatic authorities and carrying out interviews in Italian and Ukrainian. «The aim of this project is not only to help Ukrainian pharmacists overcome bureaucratic barriers on their path to employment in Italy», he explains, «but above all it is concrete support for all my compatriots who were forced to leave their homes to escape the horrors of war, offering them the chance to regain self-confidence and the joy of returning to their profession».
Davide TavanielloCo-CEO of Hippocrates Holding SpA, highlights the benefits of this project: «For Ukrainian pharmacists – forced to leave their country and often to carry out jobs not in line with their training – it represents the possibility of resuming their activity in a stimulating and professional environment. For our pharmacists, it is an opportunity to enrich themselves by comparing themselves with colleagues with different experiences. For “Lafarmacia”. it means introducing a new qualified workforce in a difficult historical period for finding personnel. Finally, also for our customers/patients who can count on other highly qualified professionals.”
