Ploughing through the snow

A report from Koen Carlier, our Aliyah fieldworker in the Ukraine

Pushing the aliyah bus...

Times are tough for the drivers who have to travel to the Israeli embassy or the airport in Kiev at this time of the year. And yet there are so many planned trips with olim, who hope to make aliyah to Israel before the end of the year. Several small villages and towns in the Ukraine have been isolated from the outside world by very heavy snowfall in the course of the past week.

We were fortunate to deliver the first 10,000 food parcels to many areas that are now unreachable. New supplies, required for additional food parcels, were ordered and volunteers are once more engaged in preparing new batches.

Igor, one of our drivers, was trapped in snow approximately thirty kilometres from a small village close to the Moldavian border. He was on his way to collect an elderly Jewish lady who had to arrange her visa in Kiev, on December 17th, for departure to Israel this year. A new date had to be arranged with the consulate and, by that time, the snow will hopefully cleared, so that we can reach her village.

Igor had two options: he could sleep in the bus or attempt to reverse three kilometres, through the snow, to a more or less passable road. We are thankful that he succeeded in doing the latter. He arrived at our house late at night to inform us of this. After a warm meal, and quite a few cups of tea, things had improved significantly!

We request your prayers for protection on the various trips with new immigrants to Kiev airport on the 18th, 19th, 20th, 23rd, 24th, 25th and 27th of December. The shortest round trip is 600 kilometres and the longest, to Mukachevo, is a round trip of 1,600 kilometres.

Please support our food parcel action by making a donation online. One food parcel costs only €10.- These food parcels are of vital importance to many of the impoverished Jews in the Ukraine.


Winter in the Ukraine	Volunteers help with food parcels for the poor Jews in the Ukraine

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