Kamins'ka Ludmyla wraps her new quilt around her 6-year-old son Svaitoslav tightly, pulling him closer to her. Next to them on the night table sits a photo of Svaitoslav’s father. He died six months earlier from COVID-19. She brought the photo with her from Donetsk, one of the few items they were able to retrieve before fleeing from the violence. “I feared for my child's life. I decided to leave rather than stay there,” Kamins'ka recalls.
Kamins'ka and Svaitoslav found a place to stay at a sanatorium — a health facility turned housing center for internally displaced Ukrainians — in the west of the country. Lutheran World Relief recently held a quilt and kit distribution there, thanks to the love and support of donors like you. Residents like Kamins'ka received the gifts with joy and appreciation. They have so very little and such generosity makes her feel like the community is welcoming them with “open arms.”
Your love is bringing physical comfort and essential needs to those who need it most
Since April, Lutheran World Relief has been continuously supporting six of these centers — sheltering families fleeing bombs, violence and uncertainty. In total, we are subsidizing the cost of emergency housing for more than 15,000 people. Most arrive with only the clothing on their backs, so providing these families with food and essential supplies like folding beds, pillows, heaters, laundry detergent and personal hygiene items is of the utmost importance. And since there’s no place like home, we’re bringing the quilts and kits that you so lovingly made to surround our neighbors in these centers with just some of the physical comforts only home can provide.
“The first days of the war were very difficult for all of us,” said Luybov Biliska, the deputy director at the center. She said children were only interested in where their bomb shelters were located, fearing the violence at home had followed them. “If you look at these people now, these are completely different faces. There is peace. There is a gleam in their eyes.” Luybov credits your support for the center’s ability to receive those fleeing and provide them with safe and warm living conditions.
Your quilts are a ministry of love to families in Ukraine
Still, Luybov said that when she asks residents how she can improve their stay, what they want, they all have the same answer. “They all want to go back home.”
Until that’s a safe option, your quilts will be with our neighbors in need, reminding them of God's loving presence in a world rife with suffering.
