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One workday in the Anti-crisis Headquarters of the Archdiocese of Lviv. The aid from the Knights of Columbus to the city of Kyiv

: 1569 2022-03-17 12:45:46

As of today, the centers for refugees have been established in the premises belonging to the monasteries and parishes of the Archdiocese of Lviv, which consists of 4 oblasts. They’ve housed around 3.5 thousand of people. They are provided with freshly cooked meals, personal hygiene products, clothes and other essentials. But the major effort was directed on the elimination of food product crisis that hit the regions suffering from shelling and air strikes. Manufacturing facilities that were providing the population with food products halted their work. Supply and logistics stopped too. In this way people ended up without food, water and often even without cellphone or Internet connection.

That is why the Anti-crisis Headquarters closely cooperates with local bishops and local authorities, not only to shape a clear understanding of what the needs are, but also to ensure that the aid will reach the maximum number of those in need and arrive to every place where it’s hoped for. Because only by joining our efforts can we take care of as many people as it’s possible.

Iurii Maletskyi, the National Delegate of the Knights of Columbus in Ukraine, personally participates in the reception and shipment of humanitarian goods across Ukraine. He says that the Knights of Columbus received a request from the Kyiv State Administration to help with food products, personal hygiene products and medicines.

- On the March 16, blessed by Edward Kawa, the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Lviv, we have shipped 60 tonnes of food, water, medicines, including medical stretchers, dressings and other essentials, to Kyiv as a response to the request of Vitalii Klychko -- the mayor or Kyiv. The humanitarian aid was collected by the Knights of Columbus, who from the first days started to actively participate in providing help to all Ukrainians in this tragic historical period.

The head of the Anti-crisis Headquarters calculated how much aid was received and distributed since the war started:

- From the very first days of war up to date, we have received and by different means shipped approximately 60 large trucks (so called TIRs) of food products to the places, where they are needed. Right now, the aid in around ten trucks is waiting to be unloaded, sorted and shipped. All the humanitarian aid we receive doesn’t stay long at our premises. Often if we know what a cargo includes, even before it reaches us and is still being transported to us, we decide where it will go after we obtain it. Food products with long shelf life, water, medicines and personal hygiene products are the most needed thing right now. We get a lot of clothes. We transfer it to the centers that house refugees, and there people who escaped from their burning homes and destroyed houses with nothing and now need literally everything can get it. But we also enclose packages with clothes into every vehicle because there are people who need it on the war-affected territories.

Thanks to the Knights of Columbus, we have just shipped the truckload of humanitarian aid to the Kyiv City State Administration. The deputy mayor of Kyiv contacts us, articulates the needs, and we do our best to meet those needs. We have loaded two TIRs for Vitalii Kryvytskyi, the bishop of the Diocese of Kyiv-Zhytomyr, so that they have the food reserve just in case the situation in the capital gets worse. In this way, they would be able to help people who stay there.

Unfortunately, the war-induced humanitarian crisis is deepening. But thanks to the active help we get from all around the world, and thanks to the self-sacrificing service of religious, non-governmental and governmental organizations and persistence of volunteers we manage to do so many good things.

Author : Vita Jakubovska

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