By Koen Carlier and Anemone Rüger
Seventeen months of war mean that our staff in Ukraine are carrying out their vital service to the Jewish communities under extremely difficult conditions. Air raid sirens sound constantly. Countless people in need turn to our Ukrainian CSI team for help. Every trip carries a real risk. The strain is immense. But the staff continue because they know how much a visit means to each of the lonely elderly people – and because they know they are supported by friends in prayer.
In Germany, there are now more than 500 sponsors who have "adopted" a Holocaust survivor or an elderly Jewish person from Ukraine. With a monthly contribution of €25, we can help these elderly people with medication and food. We also visit them regularly – even now, whenever and wherever possible. Recently, we visited Jewish seniors in Odessa, Poltava, Dnipro, and numerous other small towns and villages.
"The sirens were going off all day yesterday," my colleague Alina texted me. "On our way back from Poltava, we stopped in Kyiv. I was waiting for an acquaintance at the shopping center when suddenly people panicked and ran into the underground parking garage. We sought shelter there too. After a while, the all-clear was given." The night in Kyiv was quiet, but other cities like Vinnytsia and Odessa were attacked.
“The news from Odessa breaks my heart,” says Alina. “I was just there recently, visiting our sponsorship program participants with Larisa from the Jewish aid organization. Every evening we walked in the city center, past the church that was hit. I was always so pleased by how beautiful it is.” The church was completely destroyed during the Stalin era and only rebuilt after Ukraine gained its independence in the early 1990s.
“Every single one of our loved ones in the program was delighted by our visit,” reports Alina. “People used to come to Odessa in the summer to vacation. Now the entire beach is mined. People are so emotionally drained from the constant tension. Our visits are so important to them, whenever the security situation allows us to come. We bring them some distraction from their gloomy thoughts, some hope, and most importantly: the knowledge that they are not alone. Each of them asked us to send our regards to their sponsors!”
The infrastructure is destroyed in many places; this means that many people have lost their jobs and consequently their livelihoods. Internally displaced people cannot find new work overnight. This also affects many Jewish families. For two decades, our team on the ground has built trusting relationships with the Jewish communities. It is through these communities that the elderly – Holocaust survivors in need and Jewish senior citizens – are now turning to us. Many of them still carry the pain of the murder of their loved ones in the Holocaust.
Will you help us show needy Jewish seniors in Ukraine that they have friends in Germany by providing long-term support?
Here you can take out a sponsorship.
