Six months of war: Stories of tireless work of Caritas people in different parts of Ukraine

Six months of a full-scale war were crucial for Ukrainians. It is a reference point for millions of families who have made their choice to stay, to leave or to fight. This choice is about preserving one's life and the lives of those closest to you, about identity and the right to exist. But mostly, when we talk about the frontline, stretching from north to south, we imagine the line of hostilities marked on the map with shaded red stripes and we can hear how it sounds. Every day we read the news about the terrible destruction of lives and everything around. We know what the face of this frontline looks like with the help of footage from Mariupol, Bucha, Irpin, Kharkiv, Kherson and hundreds of cities, towns, villages and hamlets, which were invaded by tanks and missiles of the Russian Federation. This frontline is restrained by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and it is only thanks to the courage and superpowers of our soldiers that we exist as a state and as a people. But can we say that we hold one frontline?

We can see the side by side unity of the whole society, which also holds other, less visible, but not less important frontlines: volunteer, spiritual and humanitarian ones. Only by enlisting the support of the international Caritas family and our foreign partners, the Caritas-Spes Ukraine Mission has become a powerful player on the humanitarian frontline. During six months of the war, more than 2 million people received help. This was possible by means of 200 people throughout Ukraine, who feed, settle, distribute and comfort others in our 42 centers. These are 15,000 covered settlements in 23 regions. In this article, we offer to travel with us through Ukraine and see how it was. 

Family services for the sake of people and our Victory. Oksana and Volodymyr from Odesa

Oksana Ukraiinska, who is fully responsible for the logistics of humanitarian aid from our Mission in Odesa and the region, said that she would not have been able to cope with her work without the support of her husband Volodymyr.

"Half a year has already passed, it's hard to believe, but I have never regretted staying in Odesa. There were periods of maximum anxiety for our children. The question always remained in my head, 'when the risks will be that high that we will have to take our children out?' I definitely couldn't make it without my husband. His work capacity and endurance helped him to concentrate and continue working. It's funny, but sometimes my daughter can say that from now on we also talk about work at home."

 Yevhen and Bohdana from Vinnytsia

According to Bohdana Markevych, the wife of the director of Caritas-Spes Vinnytsia, Yevhen Markevych, working together for Caritas-Spes is about the same as making a wedding vow to be by your side in sorrow and joy, in health and sickness. The war increased the amount of already intense work, so Bohdana began to help her husband, despite her work as a doctor and full employment at her main job.

Bohdana and Yevhen take care of a social dormitory. During these six months of war, hundreds of people’s stories passed through their minds. The family says that sometimes these stories give strength to serve even more zealously. The couple's work does not end at the office at 7 p.m. Another breath that gets constantly taken during the family dinner talks about the future of Caritas-Spes in Vinnytsia.

"For half a year, I don't remember it being any other way," shared Bohdana. "We learned how to coordinate everything. Ideas, plans and dreams start at home in the evening. All this is nurtured by love, faith and mutual respect. Caritas-Spes gave our family a new impetus in life and our relationships. We became even stronger as a family. This is about unconditional support, mutual assistance and help. We even began to say "I love you" more often. And our three-year-old daughter, Aniuta, is already a real volunteer. What moves me the most is when I see how older couples take care of each other, and I understand how difficult it was for them to leave. I am deeply touched when I see how families are going through this difficult time together. When I see unity and love, I believe even more that we will overcome everything."

 Viktor and Yuliia from Kharkiv

War hardens the spirit of people. Yuliia and Viktor from Kharkiv have no time for sentiments. With the city being under fire around the clock, you need to act decisively and quickly. This family is our heroes. They make trips to Northern Saltivka region, bringing food and medicines to people living in half-destroyed houses. For many, the brave couple is the only one who visits them.

"It was scary when a shell flew into a house opposite ours. But for us, home is a place where everything is familiar. We live on the first floor, so we covered our  windows with plywood," said Yulia. "My husband and I deliver aid to Northern Saltivka, we go around the bedridden people who cannot go out and even buy bread for themselves. They were left completely alone because their children had left. Their gratitude cannot be expressed in words.

What helps us not lose heart among the ruins? Music in our car when we deliver aid. And understanding that nobody will be better off if we get negative? When we are positive, we bring people not only products, but also a good mood."

Andrii and Nataliia from Pavlohrad

The family of Andrii Pakhomov, who joined the Caritas-Spes Ukraine Mission, can be considered as twice displaced. The husband and his family moved to Pavlohrad from Donetsk in 2015. His own wanderings strengthened his desire to help displaced people from the occupied regions. The Pakhomovs organized a small volunteer team out of their family. Andrii shared that such work gave him many acquaintances and united his loved ones around a common cause.

"The first truck with humanitarian aid was a great celebration for us. My wife and I didn't have a job at that time, so we were all watching the news all the time. The scale of the war was immediately clear to us, but we decided to stay. We know what it's like to run away, and how war can catch you up again.

We met people from different spheres. At first they provided us with transport and helped with fuel. We engaged the police to help transport humanitarian aid with their vehicles. How can we run away now? We have humanitarian work and our wards here. Who should we hand all of this over to?"

Ministry of Fathers vs War

Priests who organized help from our Mission on the basis of their parishes witness how God cares about people through such help. For Father Marek Lisovski, God manifested himself in the fact that he managed to organize a large-scale humanitarian aid in Dnipro.

"Our chief logistician Vitalii Pazdrii became the right hand of God for me when I filled out the questionnaire for the organization of the center," said the father. "Then I needed to find a person who would help. I remembered that a couple of days before, Serhii, our parishioner, came to me, saying he was looking for a job. I called Serhii and asked him to help. This was the second sign of God. Next, it was necessary to find a warehouse for the storage of humanitarian goods. On Sunday, I made an announcement to the parishioners, and already on Monday, one of them offered a free warehouse. It is the Act of God, His Providence, that everything turned out this way."

Father Jerzy from Zaporizhzhia shared that at first he was a perfectionist and wanted to do everything perfectly, but later he became wiser and let the situation go. The father believes that there will always be more people in need than available resources, therefore, in addition to distributing humanitarian kits, he holds religious services and meetings for those who wish.

"I always believe in people and hope that we really help the needy. Sometimes people show their selfish beginning, when they take without thanking. But Jesus wanted to multiply bread among people, heal them and free them from evil spirits. We started holding meetings where we spend time with people. I talk about the Goodness of God, His Good News. Many people who come to us find peace of mind. The Lord is looking for his children in this way."

Selflessness in Western Ukraine

Transcarpathia

St. Martin Caritas (Caritas-Spes Transcarpathia) of the Mukachevo Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church has been organizing shelters for IDPs, heating tents at the border and charity kitchens since the beginning of the war. Humanitarian aid is provided to IDPs and residents of war-torn regions of Ukraine. Fedir Feher, director of this charitable foundation, told us more about the work at St. Martin Caritas.

"On February 24, we all were astonished. The first days were the hardest. Before the war, there were approximately 50 different institutions: 13 social kitchens, 14 kindergartens, including Roma settlements, four rehabilitation centers, six family-type orphanages, a candle making workshop for people with disabilities in 13 centers across Transcarpathia. Prior to the war St. Martin Caritas-Spes was doing a lot of work, so I couldn't imagine what would happen next. I was left almost alone, because my four colleagues had left, but God arranged everything in such a way that I was joined by seven new volunteers in the first days of the Russian invasion.

We were constantly receiving calls by Caritas activists from other territorial units, asking to provide housing for IDPs, so this became our top priority task. We found 33 residential premises (empty parishes, dormitories, kindergartens). The next stage for us was service on the borders. Teamed up with the Hungarian Caritas, we set up heating tents at five points on both sides of the border and also organized a social kitchen at Chop railway station. The first trucks with humanitarian aid were accepted in mid-March. More than 200 trucks arrived in Mukachevo in the course of half a year. We found 16 warehouses in the Transcarpathian region.

Currently, a total of 550 people remain in our centers with a total of 1,250 allocated places. Many people passed our center in transit going abroad. We were also invited to go abroad, but we answered, "Why should we go when people are coming to us?".

Lviv

Lviv became a transit center for the Caritas-Spes Mission in Western Ukraine. The warehouse in Lviv received the largest amount of humanitarian cargo. Humanitarian aid trucks arrive in Lviv, and from there the goods travel throughout Ukraine. For the first weeks, the Caritas-Spes team in Lviv actually lived in cars and slept on the go, providing humanitarian aid to people who were flocking to the borders from all over Ukraine. The team provided overnight accommodation, food and medicine to a large number of Ukrainians who were going abroad.

For half a year, Caritas-Spes Lviv not only provides aid to the rest of Ukraine, but also continues to take care of local projects: kitchens for the poor, centers for displaced persons, family-type orphanages and all social programs that operate on the territory of the Lviv Archdiocese.

Lutsk

Lutsk is special for the Mission, because we have two powerful centers of assistance to IDPs there - the diocesan Caritas-Spes Lutsk headed by Fr. Roman Burnyk and Caritas-Spes Lutsk of the parish of St. Peter and Paul, which was organized by Fr. Pavlo Khomiak. From the first days of the full-scale invasion of Russia into the territory of Ukraine, the parish center was full of volunteer work: cooking hot dinners for the needy, making dumplings, weaving camouflage nets. In the second half of March, the Caritas-Spes Lutsk team of the parish of St. Peter and Paul together with the diocesan Caritas-Spes Lutsk opened an aid point at the railway station in Kovel.

The Caritas-Spes Lutsk team began to accept humanitarian cargo in mid-March, and since then it has been actively engaged in providing aid in the city, cooperating with the Lutsk District Council, thanks to which it makes trips to settlements throughout the region. The Lutsk branches of Caritas-Spes cooperate and carry out active work in Volyn, which received more than 70,000 IDPs.

Caritas achievements in the heart of the country

Zhytomyr

The activities of the Caritas-Spes Zhytomyr team have not changed much as compared to the pre-war times, but they have become much larger. Sister Francisca Tumanevych, who began to deal with logistics, said that in the course of six months, she felt different every month, because her duties were constantly changing. At the beginning of the war everyone acted according to their skills. Over time a center team was formed, and the sister's tasks became more coordinative.

“Now my role is mostly to be in the shadows and adjust certain things. I have returned to my main work at the episcopal court and can delegate a lot now. We have volunteers who instantly understand and are on the same Caritas page. Such volunteers tend to turn into our employees. My personal logistics have been reduced to minimal management, because we already have an established system, structure and a new office.

Now physically I am more in the episcopal court, but my heart is always with Caritas. All this time I have had full clarity that we are useful. This clarity left no time for panic. We did good where we were present, with the desire to use our resources wherever people needed it."

Kyiv

In Kyiv, a large regional Caritas-Spes team led by Oleh Ovechko immediately reacted to the crisis and with the efforts of employees organized logistics corridors from Kyiv to Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Chernihiv region.

"From the first day there was a lot of work, so there was no time to pay attention to the danger," said Oleh. "If God Is for Us, Who Can Be Against Us? So we prayed and worked, worked and prayed.

Three humanitarian hubs were created in Kyiv, Rivne, Lviv and in Chernihiv after de-occupation. Over 150 humanitarian trucks from abroad were brought in and distributed during the first months.

My team is a circle of like-minded people who are united by the desire to work for results to help the needy, as their number has increased in connection with the war. In this difficult time, I was helped by faith and my team, which was created from those who have been close to me for a long time and those who really wanted to help. The prayer I start every morning with and God's support give me strength."

Inspiration for professionals

The team of the National Office of Caritas-Spes Ukraine faced the difficulties of forced displacement, when at the same time you have to think about your families and organize powerful humanitarian work. We asked the employees of the National Office of the Caritas-Space Ukraine Mission about what gives them strength to serve.

Father Viacheslav Hrynevych SAC, executive director of the Caritas-Spes Ukraine Mission

"Awareness that I am not alone gives me the strength to serve. The Lord entrusted me with this ministry through the decision of the Conference of Bishops, therefore, no matter what happens, He is by my side. For me, this is my personal frontline which I have to hold."

Vitalii Pazdrii, logistics manager

"I am fulfilled with the faith in our Victory, the need for help and the gratitude of the people in need. We help save the lives of Ukrainians, and this is also a significant contribution to our Victory, because supporting civilians frees up resources for the military struggle on the frontline. I am proud to serve people and the Church."

Olena Noha, Head of the Project Department

"For the past six months, I have been motivated to serve by the fact that millions of Ukrainians are currently suffering. I have confidence that this is all temporary, as well as understanding that I am happy because my family and friends are alive and healthy. I feel gratitude to the hundreds of people who support us with their donations, prayers and presence.

I'm definitely on my frontline. I realized this very clearly at the end of the second week of the war, as well as the fact that I will definitely endure, because my children should live in a peaceful and free country. At the same time, I completely surrendered to God's Will, and it became much easier for me."

Pavlo Loskutov, economist, camp director, operations manager

"I am fulfilled when I see hope, peace and confidence in the future on the face of my needy neighbor - this gives me strength to serve and unites us all. God created each person to be happy. Let's hold on and trust in God, who will never leave us."

Olena Shevchuk, the Emergency Appeal project manager ("Response to emergency situations and consequences of hostilities in Ukraine")

"In the beginning, my driving force was adrenaline, fear and an uncontrollable desire to help people. Like many others, I simply did what was most important at that time. I often worked 20 hours a day with one thought, ‘we need to work faster and more’. Sometimes it seems that there are no resources, strength and desire left, and you hold on only owing to the willpower and coffee. But with each new dawn, I feel gratitude for a new day - it means that I am alive, my children are safe, and I still can and have to help. The war continues, our cities are destroyed every day, but Ukrainians are indomitable. Many of us have lost their loved ones, homes, jobs, and that means my work is not done yet. With faith in Ukrainians and the Armed Forces!".

Tetiana Kalinichenko, communications manager

"For the first three months or so, it seemed like it was one continuous crazy day where you would take a four-hour sleep break and work non-stop. Then there was a firm conviction that our Victory directly depends on what we do today, as we close the needs of the civilian population in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. This sense of importance gave impetus to non-stop service. All I could think about was that we are pressed for time! But then I understood what a real engine is. This is not adrenaline or anything external, but a deep conviction that we cannot do otherwise. We are Caritas, surrounded by teammates for whom this merciful love is their way of life."

Father Petro Zharkovskyi, President of the Caritas-Spes Ukraine Mission

"Every person has the right to self-defense, protection of his/her life and freedom, and no one is entitled to encroach on these values. Our country was attacked. None of the Ukrainians should be indifferent to this act of violence. Not everyone can pick up a weapon and go to defend the Motherland at the frontline, but everyone should be in their place — become volunteers, benefactors and donors in order to actively help repel the enemy. Everyone has to act and answer according to one's conscience on what else he or she can do for the sake of our Victory."

We crossed the milestone of six months of a devastating war, which covered not only the physical territory of Ukraine, but also penetrated into our hearts, influenced our values and actions. Having destroyed someone from the inside, it confirmed positions and principles for the others. For our Mission, the war exposed the nerve of Ukrainian society and strengthened our intentions to help people.