Ukrainian charity fund launches Easter fundraising for lonely elderly

Giving a holiday to lonely grannies and granddaddies, the Enjoying Life foundation has opened fundraising for Easter food baskets, Rubryka reports.

What is the problem?

Pain, fear, helplessness, and despair are frequent companions of older people. They are left alone with their illnesses, without the support and the possibility of receiving help, especially amid russia's war in Ukraine. 

Many older Ukrainians struggle financially due to low pensions and high prices of food and medication. Because of the war, many were displaced, and many lost their loved ones who would care for them. They especially feel the burden when the holidays come.

What is the solution?

Easter is a family holiday when no one should be alone. This especially applies to older people – those left alone because of the war and those without relatives.

That is why the Enjoying Life foundation opened fundraising for Easter food baskets for lonely older Ukrainians, who come daily for a hot meal at the Lunch With No Trouble houses, which is the foundation's project to feed older people for free. Among them are those who had to flee their homes and move to Kyiv from the regions where hostilities occur. Those who lost loved ones and homes, those whose children went to serve in the Armed Forces, and those whom no one cared about even before the war.

How does it work?

"Before, my son used to come to visit me on all holidays. On Easter, I baked Easter cakes and painted eggs. He brought goodies to the table, and we celebrated together," says 72-year-old Mrs. Nina, a regular visitor of the fund's charity restaurant in Kyiv's district, Darnytsia. "When the war started, my son went to serve in the Armed Forces, and I was left alone. When the Lunch With No Trouble cafes opened last March, it was a real holiday, and I could come there not only to get food but also to communicate with people. Now, this is my family, those with whom I will be on Easter."

Every day, Mrs. Nina and 1,500 other older people come for hot food at seven locations in different districts of Kyiv. And each of them, in addition to dinner, receives hugs and warm words of support, which are so important not to feel abandoned.

"We see these grannies and granddads daily in our charity food point. They tell us about their joys and worries," says the founder of the Enjoying Life foundation Tina Nikolova Mykhailovska. "Closer to the holidays, each feels loneliness even more acutely than usual. And we want to take away that feeling from them, give Easter food baskets, and show that we are all their family, that they are not alone."

One Easter basket costs UAH 400.

It includes:

• Easter cake,
• eggs,
• sausage,
• cheese.

The fund needs to raise 600,000 hryvnias to give the holiday to 1500 older people. 

You can support the fundraising at the link: https://superonuki.com/project/na-velykodni-nabory-dlya-ba-ta-di/ 

Or at Monobank: https://send.monobank.ua/jar/A7bARG1t7X

Let's together become a family for lonely grannies and granddads and give them a holiday.