Every journey to Ukraine starts with the same question: “Is it safe to go?”

Visit to Ukraine in November 2024: the photo includes Oleksandr Urin, acting general director of the Okhmatdyt Hospital; Bishop Bryan Bayda of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada; Anna Dombrovska, Ukraine Program Officer of CNEWA Canada; Fr. Vitaliy Voyetsa, medical chaplain of the UGCC; priests of the Kyiv Archeparchy. (Photo courtesy of CNEWA)

By Anna Dombrovska, Ukraine Program Officer at CNEWA Canada

Since Russia massively attacked a peaceful and much smaller nation in February 2022 there has not been a single “me day” in the schedule of Ukrainians. Every day they wake up in uncertainty. Who survived the night? Are my relatives safe? Will we have an internet connection? When will the heating be back? When will the electricity be turned on? How do I get to work? When will transportation start moving? How can I keep the food safe? How will I heat breakfast for the kids? I lost my home. Where will I go? I lost my family. Who needs me now? My children are severely injured. Will they survive? Where will I get enough love and hope to go on?

If you can answer all the questions in the morning, then you can start asking yourself the next set of questions. Who needs my help today? How can I be useful? What can I do to stop the war and restore justice?

We all know correct answer to the headline’s question “is it safe to go?”– it is never safe to go to a war zone.

However, for Bishop Bryan Bayda of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada, there is no doubt that he can be useful there, in Ukraine – in L’viv, in Kyiv, in Zaporizhzhia, in Odesa.

In November 2024, the Saskatchewan-born bishop decided to go on his sixth trip to Ukraine and bring hope to people in care of CNEWA Canada (Catholic Near East Welfare Association) projects.

The news that Bishop Bayda would like to support CNEWA’s much-needed Ukraine program visit was a great relief for me. I was very happy to go and show him what CNEWA does in Ukraine, and how we can work together to get more help when the donations have drastically declined over the last year.

When anyone from CNEWA goes to visit the countries we work in, we think of the following:

  • How can we help people in need?
  • How can we make sure the help is directed to where it is needed most?
  • Did our support bring expected results?
  • How can we inform our donors of what we saw?
  • How can we inspire our donors to continue supporting CNEWA’s mission?

In Ukraine, and throughout the broader world of Ukrainians, the end of November is always associated with the commemoration of the Holodomor – purposeful genocide of Ukrainians by starvation orchestrated by the Soviet Russia in 1933-34. As the annihilation of the nation continues almost 100 years later, it was even more significant for the CNEWA delegation to light a candle in memory of those innocent victims of greed and power.

Anna Dombrovska, Ukraine Program Officer of CNEWA Canada commemorating the victims of Holodomor genocide in L’viv, Ukraine on November 23, 2024. (Photo courtesy of CNEWA)

 

Ukrainian men and women continue to risk their lives fighting Russian attacks to allow the rest of the people in the country live their normal lives. Thousands of injuries need to be treated daily stretching the medical staff over the overwhelming amount of work. New hospitals and training of new staff are a vital need to treat the civilians. With this in mind, CNEWA supported several hospitals in Ukraine and we saw the growing need in continuing this support in future.

 

Left to right: Oksana Kovalska, director of the UCU Medical Clinic, Anna Dombrovska, Ukraine Program Officer of CNEWA Canada, UCU Clinic staff member. Lviv, November 23, 2024. (Photo courtesy of CNEWA)

 

Okhmatdyt Hospital, Kyiv, November 25, 2024: Girl with multiple injuries and her father who survived the Russian attack in Sumy. (Photo courtesy of CNEWA)

 

Children are our future. But the war leaves many of them not only injured or dead but also orphaned. The Bridge of Hope and Home of Hope program run by the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate and initiated by the UGCC Eparchy of Edmonton gives hope to the orphans and helps the girls who had to flee the war from Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian soldiers.

 

 


Head of department at the Kyiv Children’s Hospital #1, Ukraine, November 25, 2024. (Photo courtesy of CNEWA)

 

CNEWA has been one of the main supporters of the Mudra Sprava Patriarchal Fund since the full-scale invasion broke out in 2022. Their projects continue to build up communities affected by war, rehabilitate families whose relatives were killed in the battlefields, and provide essential food boxes.

Anna Dombrovska, Ukraine Program Officer of CNEWA Canada, and Bishop Bryan Bayda, visiting the Provincial House of the Sisters Servant of Mary Immaculate in Lviv, Ukraine, November 24, 2024. (Photo courtesy of CNEWA)

 

Left to right: Fr. Taras Kchik, Bishop Bryan Bayda, Anna Dombrovska, Fr. Liubomyr Yavorskiy, director of “Mudra Sprava” Patriarchal Foundation of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Kyiv, Nov. 25, 2024. (Photo courtesy of CNEWA)

Even with daily attacks, life does not stop in Ukraine. People live there and so does the church. Is it safe to build in Ukraine? No. But it is necessary. Three Holy Hierarchs Seminary in Kyiv has been a long-time project supported by CNEW with the help of a generous family from Edmonton. Today the seminary provides home and education to 61 students. 96 graduates of the seminary now serve as priests in the eastern part of Ukraine.

 

Anna Dombrovska – Ukraine Program Officer of CNEWA Canada visits the Three Holy Hierarchs Seminary in Kyviv, meeting with Fr. Andriy Dorchak (left) and Fr. Petro Zhuk, rector of the seminary. (Photo courtesy of CNEWA)

Many people in Ukraine are left without homes.

In March 2022 Russian bombs destroyed eight houses in the town of Korosten in north-western Ukraine. People had nowhere to go and lived in temporary dwellings like summer kitchens or saunas since then. This is just one of many examples:

 

Mother of two children, owner of the new rebuilt home (on the right) who lived in the summer kitchen (on the left) in Korosten since a Russian bomb destroyed their house in March 2022. (Photo courtesy of CNEWA)

 

Thanks to you our donors, CNEWA Canada was able to rebuild the houses with the help of local authorities, organizations and Kyiv Archeparchy. With winter upon us, these homes still need interior finishing.

Please consider a  donation to CNEWA Canada, so that we may help the owners to move in: LINK.  Help us support and rebuild Ukraine with your prayer and donation!

And thanks to Bishop Bryan Bayda of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada and our many partners on the ground who made this solidarity trip possible.

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Catholic Saskatoon News is supported by gifts to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal: dscf.ca/baa.