Every day, a group of elderly women gather at the Mennonite Family Center in Zaporozhye, Ukraine to share food, personal hygiene, visit, sing, and study the Bible.
“We are here as a family. “Here we eat, communicate and talk and receive support,” said Galina Petrovna, 84, a retiree who has been attending the daily program at the Mennonite Family Center for eight years. She spoke Ukrainian and her words were translated.
The center was established as a registered charity in 2002 Mennonite Charitable Society in Winnipeg, which continues to monitor and fund its programs.
“These are mostly elderly people and people with disabilities who need material and emotional help,” said Sergei Butirin, the center’s assistant director.
“We try to create an atmosphere as a global family so that everyone feels loved and accepted here … to remind us of humanity and love.
The Mennonite Family Center in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, runs programs for the elderly and children with special needs. (Courtesy of Louis Savacki)
In addition to the daily program, the center offers home care for bedridden clients, most of whom are widows.
There is also day care and education for children with special needs, a program for rest and visits to the elderly and a small medical clinic.
“We thank everyone involved in this, because thanks to your support we can ensure a dignified existence and very decent communication, nutrition and stay of those people who especially need attention, especially need help, especially in these very difficult times. through which our country passes, “said Irina Gnidenko, program coordinator of the recreation center.
A Ukrainian serviceman guards while emergency services inspect a damaged bridge in the Zaporozhye region. More than half of the settlements in the region are occupied by Russian forces. (Reuters)
Zaporozhye is a city in the southeastern part of Ukraine. Many people fleeing the Mariupol bombings have sought refuge there; more than half of the region’s settlements are currently occupied by Russian forces.
“It is a pity that now is a difficult and alarming time, the war has begun. “Sirens often sound, we hear explosions, we close the windows of our houses in the evening so that no light can be seen,” Petrovna said. who was born in Russia and still has a family there.
“It’s scary to think about how it’s possible to create such a disaster – bombing cities, villages, killing women, children, the elderly, making fun of, robbing, destroying in every way possible.”
Lydia Utkina reflects this feeling. She also attends the daily program and is grateful for the help the center has provided, especially over the past two years.
“Life before the war, and now it is difficult for us. The pension is small,” she said.
“It was difficult for us when there was an epidemic from COVID and people hardly worked, there was little money, but they supported our family center. They helped with groceries. When we could come to the center, we were fed breakfast and lunch. “
A long history of Mennonites in Ukraine
The Mennonites first arrived in Ukraine in 1788 at the invitation of Catherine the Great, the last and longest reigning empress in Russia. She offered them free land, religious and educational privileges, and military liberation.
Mennonites created agricultural and productive communities that became very successful.
However, over the years, these religious and educational privileges have been challenged and revoked, leading to the first migration from Russia to Canada in the 1870s, said Conrad Stoes, an archivist at Mennonite heritage archive in Winnipeg.
Konrad Stoes, an archivist at the Mennonite Heritage Archive in Winnipeg, shows photos of compositions in food banks organized by the Central Committee of Mennonite in Ukraine in the 1920s. (Trevor Brine / CBC News)
During the Russian Revolution, the Mennonites supported the white armies and became targets of the Red armies. In Soviet times, Mennonites were marginalized and starved. Those who complained had disappeared.
This led to another major emigration to Canada and other parts of the world.
The Mennonites in North America wanted to help the abandoned, “so they gave food aid, soup kitchens, tractors, and the like to the Mennonites, but also to anyone who needed help,” Stoes said. He has several cereal black-and-white photos showing people queuing for food in scenes from a century ago that are reflected in Ukraine today.
This was the early work of what would become the Mennonite Central Committee, a relief and peace organization that still working in Ukraine and around the world.
Volunteers at the Mennonite Central Committee in Canada fill five shipping containers with emergency supplies (buckets, blankets and canned meat). They will travel by land through Europe to Ukraine, where they will be distributed by partners and church organizations. (Trevor Brine / CBC News)
Ukraine gained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, prompting Mennonites from Canada and the United States to return and visit as a way to find their roots.
“They came back to talk about the plight of the elderly and wondered if the Mennonite in Manitoba or North America in general could do something to help the elderly in Ukraine. And so we started,” Louis Savatsky said. , Winnipegger, who acts as a liaison between the Mennonite Family Center and the Mennonite Charity.
“We had to stop some of the programs during COVID and now again during the war. There was a strict curfew … but we tried to get back to the programs as soon as possible.”
Every day, Louis Savatsky of the Mennonite Charitable Society in Winnipeg checks with the staff of the Mennonite Family Center in Zaporozhye, Ukraine, to see how they and their clients are doing. (Trevor Brine / CBC)
“Thanks to the people on your side”
Back in the center, 83-year-old Dina Khvostenko reflects on what it was like to grow up in Ukraine during World War II – and how it compares to the current conflict.
“I remember tanks with enemies standing behind our house. There were soldiers behind the Dnieper River and there was a shootout,” she said.
“But I don’t remember the horror that is happening now … This war is very brutal. They are killing civilians, mutilating them, robbing them, raping them.”
She is also grateful for the island of peace she has found in the center.
“We feel good here, we eat, we pray, we sing, we eat,” she said. “I thank the people on your side who are helping us, who are supporting us, and I thank the staff at the center. May God send mercy on them.
WATCH Ukrainians are grateful for the support of the Canadian Mennonite Group:
“Here we are as a family”: Ukrainians are grateful for a center founded by the Canadian Mennonite group
Every day, people in Zaporozhye, Ukraine, gather at the Mennonite Family Center, established as a registered charity by the Mennonite Charitable Society in Winnipeg, to share food, visit, sing, and study the Bible.
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