Mission Yearbook: Windows and roofs have been replaced as part of hope and care for Ukraine

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As the war in Ukraine has stretched 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.

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.

Camino 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 seniors, the house is hosting mothers with children and some young adults. Camino has provided food and supplies to residents and worked over the past 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.

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.”

Gregg Brekke for the Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)
 

Let us join in prayer for:

Eva Rebozo, CLC Consultant/Database Administrator, Interim Unified Agency 
Martha Reisner, Director, Affiliated Markets Relationships, Board of Pensions  

Let us pray:

Holy God, you honor us by calling us to your people and sending us into the world to be your servants. May all those who suffer hardship know the comfort of your Spirit. Prosper the work of the hands that reach out to help rebuild lives. Amen.