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Elderly in Exile
Today I helped August Mission‘s team in Khmelnytskyi deliver humanitarian aid materials to a nursing home located in the hinterlands of Khmelnytskyi Oblast. To reach the nursing home, we drove about 90 minutes on smooth highway and then exited onto a small country road. We drove another 30 minutes at low speed on very rough…
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Standing His Ground in Chasiv Yar
Eugene Tkachev in Chasiv Yar
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Every Day a Blessing
We are in the height of the cherry season here in Ukraine. A few days ago, a neighbor family here in the village of Sokilets’ invited us to come pick cherries from the trees in their yard. We brought several buckets of cherries back to the nursing home and served them freshly washed to the…
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Redux II
As I described in my post “Dressing Room Redux,” we were hoping to upgrade washing, bathing, laundry and general sanitation facilities at the nursing home for elderly and disabled IDPs (internally displaced people) where I am volunteering here in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. Thanks to generous cash donations from a few friends and family, we have already…
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Dressing Room Redux
As I described in my post “Bottlenecked in the Bathroom,” we are hoping to upgrade washing, bathing, laundry and general sanitation facilities at the nursing home for elderly and disabled IDPs (internally displaced people) where I am volunteering here in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. We would like to have hot running water available for the residents at…
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Evac Team Visit
Yesterday our shelter for elderly and disabled IDPs (internally displaced people) in Ukraine enjoyed a visit from Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke and one of his partners. Ignatius runs a civilian evacuation team in eastern Ukraine. The members of the team are all volunteers. Some of them are Ukrainians, others are foreigners. Ignatius himself holds a UK passport. …
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Bottlenecked in the Bathroom
Disclosure: We are looking for help with a facilities upgrade here at the nursing home. The content of this post is an accurate description of the situation, but the facts are presented with the unvarnished purpose of persuading you, dear reader, to contribute something to the effort. Those who are just generally curious about the…
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Nursing Home Diary – Flu Season Coming?
I was pretty busy helping out at the nursing home today. We are short-staffed because the director Gennadiy is away for the weekend and two of the regular staff are sick. So today nurse Evhenia and I did all of the “downstairs” work together. “Downstairs work” means everything except food preparation. Downstairs work includes sanitation…
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Chasiv Yar Diary Dec. 29, 2022
This week, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I am volunteering at the Chasiv Yar nursing home, which is temporarily relocated to the village of Cokilets in Khmelnytskyi oblast, Ukraine. The August Mission team was making a pre-Christmas delivery on Friday, December 23 so I helped them load their truck, and they gave…
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Chasiv Yar Diary – Nov. 11, 2022
A couple of weeks ago I wrote this blog post about the Chasiv Yar assisted living home for the elderly relocated to a mothballed school building in a remote rural village outside Khmelnytskyi. After I wrote it, I asked the director of the home, Gennadiy, if he would take a look at it and give…