“The ongoing war in Ukraine is causing a lot of suffering. We have started some art therapy classes at the friary in Boryspil,” said the Guardian and Pastor, Friar Andrzej WANAT.
“For now, the classes are held once a week, but we plan to expand our activities in the future. To this end, we are planning to rent several classroom spaces in and around the city,” he added.
Friar Andrzej and the friars of his community offer spiritual direction and material assistance to the needy. With help from the Province of St. Joseph, Spouse of the B.V.M. in Romania, the friars in Boryspil have been providing assistance to people who have been deprived of their livelihoods in the city. They regularly send food packages, hygiene products, clothes and medicine to various places around the country. Last month, such packages were sent to Kherson, Kharkiv, Kupiansk, Cherkasy, Bucha, Borodianka, Irpin, Kiev, Mukachevo, Chuhuiv and Kamennaya Yaruga.
Similar support was also provided to military hospitals in Uzhhorod, Kharkiv, Kherson and Kramatorsk. The donated goods included T-shirts, underwear, travel bags, medicine and medical supplies.
The friars are also attentive to the soldiers in their own parishes. They donated food, clothing and medical supplies to the local brigades in Bakhmut, Kramatorsk, Kurakhove and Vilniansk. The friars also donated food, medical supplies and medical equipment to the local border guard unit in Boryspil.
After the destruction of the dam on the Dnieper River in Nova Kakhovka, many villages were flooded and badly damaged. The Conventual Franciscan friaries in Ukraine responded immediately with deliveries of food, clothing, mattresses, sheets, sleeping bags, cleaning and disinfection products, and basic household items.
The friars from the Provincial Custody of the Holy Cross in Ukraine are also providing material and spiritual assistance to the war-torn population on a daily basis.
The friars in Kremenchuk deliver about two hundred food packages every week to people who have fled war-torn areas.
Each week, the friars in Mats’kivtsi, working with Christian Relief Services, send food aid to areas affected by military operations.
The Provincial Custos, Friar Stanisław KAWA, together with the friars of the Lviv community, provide assistance to a children’s medical facility and to the residents of an apartment building that was destroyed by missiles. Moreover, in his capacity as President of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, Friar Stanisław also coordinates assistance provided by the other religious Orders in Ukraine.
Friar Jan M. SZEWEK
