Between the labyrinthine corridors of the building where a school once operated, in that already so distant beginning of 2022, Vitaly Ilchenko moves at a hurried pace, almost with her eyes closed. He knows every room by heart and knows exactly which shelf contains the canned goods, appliances, blankets and medicines. It’s hard to keep up with the pace. Curiosity arises almost immediately: how many kilometers will you cover per day between the thousands of pallets in the improvised warehouse? The answer is easy to guess, not least because at Hostynna Hata (in Portuguese, Casa Hospitaleira), the largest volunteer center in all of Ukraine, no two days are the same and the hundreds of families who visit set the pace. Like Vitaly, they are people who have fled the horrors of war and now need help to survive.
The 20-year-old has known the corners of the house for eight months. It is yet another example of Ukrainian resilience that has asserted itself over the past year. He arrived in Odessa with nothing and became a volunteer as a refugee. “I arrived in town and didn’t know where to go. I found accommodation for the day and came here to get some groceries. I was sitting at the reception, I saw Maryna come by and I asked her: don’t you need help? ” “She said yes. My number and the next day I came here”. The Russian attack on Kramatorsk railway station, which killed more than 50 people last April and which the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) this week deemed a war crime, was the drop in the water for the safety of Vitaly. Born in that city in the Donetsk region, in the east of the country, the boy got on a train and traveled more than 600 kilometers to the southwest.
Father fights, Vitaly helps
With his father fighting in the armed forces, the young Ukrainian is on a mission to help his mother and grandfather who remained in Kramatorsk. “I call them every day and help them with products. I buy them medicines because they are very expensive there. I am a little worried about my family, but for now everything is fine,” he shares in one of the busy aisles of the Department store. With a sturdy stance and dressed in black from head to toe, he goes about his daily work with the coat of arms of Odessa on his chest. Do whatever it takes. “I unload the cars and pack the boxes of flour, rice or peas. I also help to issue documents for the refugees, bring them boxes of groceries and so on.”
While dozens of volunteers collect the thousands of donations that continue to arrive at the repository, offered by the public and various humanitarian organizations, a group welcomes the beneficiaries in the front room, which has been transformed into a reception. Everyone has a role: some distribute passwords and give the order to enter, others listen to requests and fill out the necessary documentation, and the rest are responsible for delivering the bags of food, clothing and medicines. The machine seems well oiled, but that wasn’t always the case. “None of us had experienced this before the war, so at the beginning we didn’t know what it would be like, what it would be like. Everything was piled up. We started to grow and in 11 months we became the biggest center in Ukraine”, he says. Maryna Semenyuk, her voice full of pride.
well oiled machine
The crowds ensure Hostynna Hata, which according to the co-founder receives between 500 and 700 families every day. “About 100 to 150 families come from Odessa, but the greatest urgency is the refugees. We get everything. When children are born, we have cribs and bathtubs. Families come here and tell us what they need.” Despite Kiev’s troops liberating Kherson, just over 200 kilometers away, the city’s lack of conditions and the harsh winter led to a new stream of migrants. This is the case with Zina.
He has been in the port city for two months now, but this is the first time he has stood in the long queue in front of Hostynna Hata asking for help. While waiting for her turn, she gently rocks the pram so as not to wake her son. The 35-year-old woman, mother of a 10-year-old girl, gave birth for the second time in the middle of the war and has no credit for the doctors who accompanied her. “They did everything and it was all free. I didn’t pay a dime the whole pregnancy. The doctors worked the entire occupation”. When the Russian troops left Kherson, the son was just over three months old and will not remember the weeks of panic the family spent locked in the house for fear of the bombings. An attack near their home eventually forced them to leave.
The queue moves at a good pace and Zina is served within half an hour. She fills out the paperwork and returns to her husband with a huge cardboard box with the UNICEF seal. It brings essential goods for the offspring of the family, who have now awakened and sway merrily in his father’s lap. “We have rented an apartment here, but we hope to go home soon. We don’t want to go anywhere else. My friends have moved abroad and I am almost alone here. I wait for peace in Kherson and I’m going home.”
Source: DN
