Camino provides hope and care for vulnerable people on Ukraine’s front line

As the war in Ukraine stretches past the three-year mark since the Feb 4, 2022, Russian invasion, the humanitarian organization Camino has continued serving people most affected by the war and most vulnerable to its consequences.

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Formed in the days after the full-scale Russian invasion by Jan Dus, a Czech Presbyterian minister and genealogist who formerly worked with Doctors Without Borders, Camino is an all-volunteer grassroots organization funded by private donors. (You can make a gift here.) Dus served as a parish pastor from 1996 to 2010, including one year at First Presbyterian Church in Ponca City, Oklahoma, before moving back to the Czech Republic to work begin his humanitarian work.

He says the security situation in Ukraine has deteriorated, with increased shelling and bombing even in areas previously considered safer. One of its partner organizations, Father’s House, which previously served as an orphanage and is now housing older adults, has built bomb shelters and created a respite stop.

“They have now two regular bomb shelters that are open both to the house and also to the people around it,” Dus said. “So not only the residents of the organization, but also the people who live in these surroundings, come there and find a shelter … The other thing we have been working on over the past several months was restoring part of Father's House into an area that would be open to people who need a little bit of rest, in Ukrainian it’s called a punkt nezlamnosti (point of invincibility). It is a center which lets people in from anywhere come for restoration.

“Imagine you are sitting in your apartment. It is a blackout situation. So we have been sitting there for hours in dark — the electricity is off, the gas is off. You are hungry, you are unable to prepare a warm drink for yourself. And it's just dark. The battery on your cell phone is running out as well. So those are the situations where people come to these unbreakable points to get hot tea, get some food, recharge their battery of the cell phone, recharge their inner battery, and after four or five hours to be able to go back home.”

Other efforts include supplying teams of volunteers who work on the front lines installing boards over shattered windows and patching roofs on homes following bombardment during the cold winter months. Dus recalled one such effort on a recent trip to Kharkiv.

“The bombing stopped around 7 p.m. and immediately our colleagues went [to the site of the attack] and they realized there were buildings which had completely lost their windows,” he said. “The volunteers went apartment by apartment, door to door, asking, ‘Where's your bedroom? We will help you to fix the windows of the bedrooms first.’ And before the people went to sleep, they put wooden boards in all the bedrooms of all the people in these blocks of apartments. So they were not forced to leave, and they could stay in their homes.”

In the morning, the volunteers returned to cover other windows and make repairs. To date, Dus said the organization has fixed untold numbers of windows and over 1,500 roofs.

Camino, true to the “road” roots of its name, is also assisting large international NGOs and even the United Nations with delivering supplies to people on the front lines. Due to security concerns, and winter travel difficulties, many supplies were held up in major cities. Camino’s volunteers have provided this vital lifeline — canned goods, heating blankets and canister fuel — to people unable to leave their homes.

Closer to Kyiv, in the town of Bahacheve, 150 residents live in Mercy House, a retirement home originally designed to serve 40 people. In addition to senior citizens, the house is hosting mothers with children and some young adults. Camino has provided food and supplies to residents, and worked over the last year to build two greenhouses that are providing food to the home as well as for sale to the community.

Dus said supply lines in Ukraine are running smoothly in the eastern part of the country and Camino has stopped receiving donations-in-kind in favor of financial support that allows communities to buy goods locally and pay local workers, further helping the economy.

A winter fundraising drive of $46,000 is only $6,300 away from reaching its goal that includes covering the cost of repair materials and other needs.

As Dus looks forward to the next phase of Camino’s assistance in Ukraine, he is focused on expanding the group’s work with war-wounded civilians and veterans that began in Kharkiv two years ago. In addition to helping financially, the program provides physical therapy, adaptive equipment, and psychological and spiritual support.

“When the security situation allows, I meet with a group of war-wounded civilians who have been receiving help from the group, maybe five, six people,” he said. “We sit in a circle and they share their personal stories. And the next time I meet with different people. We have been supporting about 130 war-wounded civilians of different ages from children, teenagers, young adults and senior citizens.”

How long the war will last is uncertain, even as efforts are underway to broker a lasting peace agreement. Regardless, Dus sees the work of Camino continuing as the people of Ukraine begin the long process of restoring their lives and communities.

“As far as Camino is concerned, we do plan to continue our work after a truce or after a ceasefire because the need will not disappear,” he said. “The need will be there. And it is typical that the most vulnerable communities stay vulnerable for a long time after a peace has been achieved.”

To support the work of Camino in Ukraine, click here. You can also get an update concerning Camino every Sunday on Facebook and Instagram under the name “Camino Humanitar.”