How a century-old Canadian connection is bringing help, comfort to struggling Ukrainians & More News Here

Every day, a group of senior girls collect on the Mennonite Family Centre in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, to share some meals, care for private hygiene wants, go to, sing, and have a Bible research.

“We are here as a family. … We eat here, we socialize and talk, and we receive support,” mentioned Galina Petrovna, 84, a retiree who has been attending the day program on the Mennonite Family Centre for eight years. She was talking in Ukrainian and her phrases have been translated.

The centre was established as a registered charity in 2002 by the Mennonite Benevolent Society in Winnipeg, which continues to oversee and fund its packages.

“This is mainly elderly and disabled people who need material and emotional help,” mentioned Sergey Butyrin, the centre’s assistant director.

“We try to create an atmosphere like a global family so that everyone can feel that they are loved and accepted here … to remind of humanity and love.”

In addition to the day program, the centre gives house look after bedridden shoppers, most of whom are widows. 

There’s additionally daycare and training for kids with particular wants, a respite and seniors visitation program and a small medical clinic.

“We thank all those who take part in this because, thanks to your support, we can ensure a dignified existence and a very decent communication, nutrition and stay of those people who especially need attention, especially need help, especially in those very difficult times that our country is going through,” mentioned Irina Gnidenko, program co-ordinator for the respite centre.

Zaporizhzhia is a metropolis within the southeast a part of Ukraine. Many folks fleeing the bombardment in Mariupol have sought refuge there; greater than half of the settlements within the area are at the moment occupied by Russian forces.

“It is a pity that now a difficult and disturbing time has come, the war has begun. Sirens often howl, we hear explosions, we close the windows of our houses in the evenings so that no light can be seen,” mentioned Petrovna, who was born in Russia and nonetheless has household there. 

“It is scary to think how it was possible to create such a disaster — bomb cities, villages, kill women, children, old people, mock, rob, destroy in all possible ways.”

Lydia Utkina echoes that sentiment. She additionally attends the day program and is grateful for the assistance the centre has supplied, particularly within the final two years.

“Life before the war, and now, is hard for us. The pension is small,” she mentioned.

“It was hard for us when there was a COVID epidemic, and people hardly worked, there was little money, but we were supported by the family centre.  They helped with groceries. When it was possible to come to the centre, we were fed breakfast and lunch.”

Long historical past of Mennonites in Ukraine

Mennonites first arrived in Ukraine in 1788, on the invitation of Catherine the Great, the final and longest reigning empress of Russia. She provided them free land, non secular and academic privileges and a navy exemption.

The Mennonites established farming and manufacturing communities that turned very profitable.

Over the years, although, these non secular and training privileges had been challenged and repealed, inflicting the primary migration from Russia to Canada within the 1870s, mentioned Conrad Stoesz, archivist on the Mennonite Heritage Archives in Winnipeg.

During the Russian revolution, Mennonites supported the White armies and have become targets of the Red armies. In the Soviet years, Mennonites had been marginalized and starved. Those who complained had been disappeared. 

It resulted in one other main emigration to Canada and different elements of the world. 

Mennonites in North America wished to assist these left behind, “so they administered food aid, soup kitchens, tractors, that type of thing to Mennonites but also to anyone who needed help,” Stoesz mentioned. He has a number of grainy black and white photographs exhibiting folks lining up for meals in scenes a century in the past which can be being echoed in Ukraine at the moment.

It was the early work of what would turn into the Mennonite Central Committee, a aid and peace group that continues to work in Ukraine and around the globe.

Ukraine achieved independence from the previous Soviet Union in 1991, which prompted Mennonites from Canada and the United States to return and go to as a approach of discovering their roots.

“They came back talking about the plight of seniors and wondered whether the Mennonites in Manitoba or in North America generally couldn’t do something to help the seniors in Ukraine. And that’s how we got started,” mentioned Louie Sawatzky, the Winnipegger who acts as a liaison between the Mennonite Family Centre and the Mennonite Benevolent Society.

“We have had to suspend some of the programs during COVID and now again during the war. There have been strict curfews. … but we’ve tried to return to the programs as soon as we can.”

‘Thank you to the folks of your nation’

Back on the centre, 83-year-old Dina Khvostenko displays on what it was like to develop up in Ukraine through the Second World War — and the way it compares to the present battle.

“I remember how tanks of enemies stood behind our house. There were also soldiers behind the Dnieper River and there was a shootout,” she mentioned. 

“But such a horror that is happening now, I do not remember. … This war is very cruel. They kill civilians, maim, rob, rape.”

She, too, is grateful for the island of peace she has discovered on the centre.

“We feel good here, we eat, we pray, we sing, we eat,” she mentioned. “Thank you to the people of your country who help us, who support us, and thanks to the staff of the centre. May God send his mercy to them.”

WATCH | Ukrainians grateful for help from Canadian Mennonite group:

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