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Caritas Spes Zhytomyr: overcoming the war challenges

Caritas Spes Zhytomyr: overcoming the war challenges

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the activities of the Caritas-Spes Zhytomyr team have not changed much as compared to pre-war times, but have become much broader. Until February 24, the Zhytomyr center team consisted only of Father Vitalii Uminskyi, an accountant and sisters taking care of the kindergarten. Despite the small number of employees, the Zhytomyr Caritas workers provided various services: they gave out food packages to the needy, took care of children from Brusylov, who were reported by a local teacher, and kept a day care center for 50 people. When the war broke out, the team from Zhytomyr expanded and began to actively cooperate with the Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions.

The director of the Zhytomyr center, Fr. Vitalii Uminskyi, the logistics manager and Sister Franciska Tumanevych shared their experience about the war, the work of volunteers and about the most interesting part of the Caritas-Spes Zhytomyr team work.

Father Vitalii: "From the first day of the war, we agreed with the leadership of the Archdiocese "Caritas-Spes Lublin" on the trucks and the distribution of humanitarian aid by us. Our top priority was Kyiv, having problems with products back then. The Kyiv region was covered next. Sr. Franciska mapped out the routes herself.

In the first days, the road our drivers were traveling on to Lutsk to pick humanitarian aid was fired upon by missiles. At that time, cargo was going from Poland to Lutsk and then to Zhytomyr, because they were afraid to reach us directly. We redirected the first aid to Kyiv, to the church, as the city was surrounded from all sides and they were running out of food. I even told the men that I would rather go because I am a priest, and there are families there. But I was told to stay put."

Prior to the full-scale invasion of russia into Ukraine, Sr. Franciska worked in the episcopal court at the church of St. Sofia and also met with families on weekends. February 24 was the beginning of a completely different life for the nun.

Sister Franciska: "Everything turned upside down. No one thought about the court anymore. When it all started, you had to do something. On February 24, there was a need to discuss what was to be done next.

The next day it became clear that we should continue working. My logistics activities began when one of our sisters from Caritas Lublin offered us to accept a truckload of food. Since that time, I have been responsible for receiving cargo in Zhytomyr and sending it forward.

Thanks to our sisters in Lublin, humanitarian aid was sent to Lutsk, and drivers drove to Zhytomyr in empty trucks to pick it up. From the first days, heads of orphanages and boarding schools started calling and writing us. Thanks to the fact that "Caritas-Spes" is well-known in Zhytomyr, all the structures of the State Administration have turned to us for help. Many of them were left without help, so we took our cars and delivered what was in demand.

During the first month everyone dreamed of returning to the office. Volunteers wrote papers, Fr. Vitalii was in and out. We got up, prayed, had breakfast and were already in the warehouses in the morning. At the warehouse, I learned to eat Mivina (dried products for quick cooking) along with bars. I received many calls. The phone was just ringing off the hook, because Zhytomyr began to accept IDPs. Other charitable foundations also started contacting us, as they had nothing to help the needy. And we have "the home front" – our international partners."

About the volunteers of "Caritas-Spes Zhytomyr"

Volunteers appeared gradually. In a few days, two office workers were joined by about 30 volunteers and 10 drivers with their own vans. The good fellows also offered us two free warehouses. Today, the Zhytomyr center of "Caritas-Spes" has three warehouses in different parts of the city, in order to be able to function in the event of the occupation of Zhytomyr.

Father Vitalii: "God blessed us in a way that people who stayed in Ukraine reached out to us and offered their help. The office grew within days. We have volunteers of different professions. Now we have a headquarters with persons responsible for various issues. Sr. Franciska is a logistician and coordinates communication with foundations, someone else is responsible for medicines, someone for warehouses, etc.

The believers of the Domestic Church of the "Light-Life" movement helped us greatly. In Osikov, we met with the head of the center and decided to create a headquarters there. Volunteers of the movement helped transport women and children to the border with Poland for free during the first three weeks. So, we took out more than 100 people.

On the fourth day of the war, we were joined by a couple from the Diakonia of Mercy "Light-Life" that remains in Zhytomyr. We received calls from the very morning until the evening. Our first visitors were Zhytomyr citizens - elderly people, the disabled. We decided to provide assistance to IDPs and large families."

Sister Franciska: "A great team is a gift from God. The community of the Domestic Church of "Light-Life" movement helped us a lot. These families have their own formation, they can choose additional service. Many activists, having joined the Diaconia of Mercy, have been meeting with Fr. Vitalii for more than two years, visited children in Brusyliv during summer holidays, where they prepared food and served the children.

When the war started, many representatives of the Diaconia came with an offer to help. Everyone was confused and understood that they could not be inactive. Thanks to Fr. Vitalii's organizational skills, it was possible to find fabrics and sew vests with emblems.

Men from the Diakonia of Mercy joined us with their cars and became volunteers. Among the volunteers there were people who had just heard of Caritas-Spes. Our entire team has become a family. The feeling of security was given by the fact that we were constantly busy. As a professional psychologist, I must say that hatred is a resourceful feeling. It gave us adrenaline to fight, each on one's own front.

There were moments when we heard rocket attacks. Volunteers created a Viber group for communication. When something went wrong, Fr. Vitalii wrote some words of support there, and everyone calmed down. The community saved many of us from depression.”

On assistance to different regions

The main direction of work of "Caritas-Spes Zhytomyr" is assistance to regions. Fr. Vitalii Uminskyi claims to have seen a realistic picture of how people met humanitarian cargo.

Father Vitalii: "I went with drivers to Vorzel and Borodianskyi district. In one village where we stopped and started giving away humanitarian aid, people ran to us. We also went to Bucha the day after the President's visit. I was also in the village of Narodychi, right under the Belarusian border, which was flooded.

I didn't have time to make frequent trips, as every day I had the Holy Scriptures reading for the volunteers and served the Mass."

Sister Franciska: "Our drivers delivered goods to parishes at the request of superiors from Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy and Chernihiv. When we saw that the situation with humanitarian aid in Zhytomyr was not so critical, we began to take it to the region. The team focused on going to settlements where no one had brought any aid yet.

We delivered two vans accompanied by a passenger car to Bucha. At the beginning of March, blankets were brought to Vorzel, because people were living in basements. When we went to remote villages, the locals came out and even ran to our van, because they were waiting for help, they lived without communication, electricity and gas. People invited us to other villages, and we established cooperation with all the consolidated territorial communities in the Zhytomyr region. We have compiled lists with the estimated number of those in need."

Testimony of Fr. Vitalii and Sr. Franciska about the war in Ukraine

God did not forbid war, but He does not want to turn people into weak-willed slaves. A person has the free will, mind and ability to make a conscious choice — to go or not to go to someone else's territory, to kill or not to kill.

Father Vitalii: "God has given us a lot so that we choose good and fight against evil. If putin, the russian soldiers who brutally tortured our people, would open up to God and listen to Him, He would not allow this to happen. God does not engage with our will unless we respect Him. God does not give a machine gun. A russian soldier himself chooses to be an executioner.

In this war, I see God very clearly. I see Jesus in our people, in volunteers who put themselves in danger to deliver food. I see the face of God in the tears of grandmothers telling their stories of how they cooked outside in the cold. I saw God in Bucha, on a mass grave. I also see the great suffering of God when a Russian is torturing a Ukrainian, because God did not create us like that.

Every day I fall in love with a Human, witnessing what our people are capable of. As for me, our volunteers are real heroes. How can you just go, bring products and things to the strangers, knowing that you may not return? I saw the love of our sisters in Zhytomyr and Lubar while they were providing help. I am very grateful to God that the volunteers and all those who help us saw my Mother – the Catholic Church."

Sr. Franciska said that even before the war, she decided to pray rosaries online through Zoom along with other sisters starting from February 16. The nun goes live every day with a prayer since then, and is joined by people from different continents online.

Sister Franciska: "We thought about doing it now and then, but on the first day of the war, we decided that the prayer should be daily and invited our volunteers. 25 people joined us. For almost four months now, this kind of joint prayer gives us great emotional stability, even when we arrive very tired from work. Despite the time difference, sisters from Rome, Poland, Africa and America say the joint prayer online. The whole civilized world stands in solidarity with us. None of us planned that we would be reading these rosaries for so long."

Sr. Franciska says that her emotionality "turns on" already in the evening, when she is alone with herself. Until then, during the day she sees people in need and just fulfills her mission.

"You start to cry from the people's stories already in the evening, and during the day you seem to freeze your emotions. You realise that you have to do something, there is no way to break down," our heroine shares her feelings.

There was a moment when I looked at the burned russian tanks and saw a corpse of their soldier. Our soldier approached me and said: "Don't feel sorry for him." And I looked with an inner question: "Why did you come here? Who touched you?". This feeling was combined with the absence of understanding why a person came to our land and destroyed our life. We lived in our house, took care of it. I just know that one must do good so that there is less such evil."

27 June 2022
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