It becomes very cold in Ukraine

Our work in Ukraine entails numerous challenges. Our (emergency) supply of food parcels is slowly running out and for next week the weather forecast predicts temperatures of minus 19 degrees centigrade. A lot of snow has already fallen in the southern and eastern parts of the country, especially in the region of Odessa, Kherson and Kharkov. And now with the present lockdown we already know what we have to do …

“Our (emergency) supply of food parcels is slowly running out and for next week the weather forecast predicts temperatures of minus 19 degrees centigrade”

But first a quick look back. Until the beginning of January we have been busy with handing out food parcels. The packing and distribution were done in four places. That makes it all much more practical and less complicated.

We have just returned from a large delivery in the towns of Zaparozhye and Alexandria. In Alexandria we have not been delivering for very long. We took everything to a small office, but our attention was drawn by a monument nearby. It commemorates the 2,572 Jews who were murdered there during the Holocaust.

Here in this building, containing a vegetable storage and a bakery 2,572 Jews were murdered cold-bloodedly during the Holocaust

“Where did that happen then?”, I asked Diana. “Somewhere outside the city, in a ravine?” “No”, she said, “right here behind these thick walls where there is now a storage for vegetables and a bakery.”

It is here that 2,572 Jews were murdered cold-bloodedly during the Holocaust.

You frown your eyebrows time and again that nowadays there are commercial activities on some of the Jewish mass graves. It is a good thing though that some years ago a memorial was erected, payed for by the city.

“You frown your eyebrows time and again that nowadays there are commercial activities on some of the Jewish mass graves”

The Jewish elderly who live on a meager pension in Alexandria will be grateful for their eleven-kilo-food parcel. Until the beginning of January the weather conditions stayed favourable. Almost no snow and temperatures only minus 4 degrees centigrade. You have to brave long stretches of bad road surfaces when you leave the main roads, so that means you have to patiently drive on at walking pace.

The requests for further deliveries of food parcels are now reaching us smoothly, so we will place a new order at the wholesaler. We will have some 44,000 kilograms delivered at four places. In that way we can continue to manage our assistance in supplying Jewish elderly in distress with one or more food parcels!

We hear it time and again: Thank you for your ongoing help! Even in these corona times you just keep on going and don’t think of yourselves.”

Heating costs have gone up since January 1^st with as much as 14 per cent! Indeed: these are busy times, no quarantine for us! It is also good that we can deploy local young people in particular to help with packing the food parcels.

You do not always see laughing faces when the people receive a nutritious food parcel, but we do get a lot of grateful responses afterwards. Also, a Bible verse from the Book of Proverbs 14:31 appealed to me greatly:

“Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”

Friendship
The food parcels are regularly distributed among Holocaust survivors, poor families, Jewish refugees, children and the sick. A food parcel is more than a bag of food. It’s a sign of your friendship and your support, a testimony to our Jewish brothers and sisters that they are not alone.

Will you help?
The cost of one food parcel is 10 euros or 11 US $. For this amount we buy wholesale products. The parcels are packed by volunteers and distributed throughout Ukraine. Will you help with one or more food parcels? Your support is desperately needed!

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