Just in time for the start of the school year, Samuel Huber-Huber, Noah Huber-Huber and I successfully transported a number of necessary items such as school bags, toys, school supplies and hygiene products to Chernivtsi in Ukraine. On site we received valuable support from the organization “New Family”, where we were warmly welcomed by Tanya Berezhnaya, the leader. Tanya kindly took us on a tour of their various facilities around the city and showed us the wide range of social work services they offer. Her areas of focus include caring for drug addicts, supporting young people living on the streets and implementing addiction prevention programs. The focus of their work is the well-being of the individual and their health.
Tanya’s network in the city is extensive and diverse, and she helped us reconnect with the Jewish school we had supported in previous years. The last time we provided supplies to this school was about ten years ago.
When we arrived, the principal warmly welcomed us and gave us some important information. She told us that the school needed to be renovated to ensure the safety of students and to even offer in-person classes again – including building a bomb shelter.
As we descended into the basement, I had an uneasy feeling: the thought that in just a few weeks, children – possibly first graders – will have to sit in this room to protect themselves from rocket attacks while trying to concentrate on their lessons, is really sad. To alleviate this difficult situation, we also brought battery-operated lamps. These lights will allow students to continue learning in dimly lit classrooms, or at least be able to see and support one another, even in the event of a power outage.
The trip itself went well, as planned it took us about 13 hours to get to the border, we spent a good night in Radauti – still in Romania – and were at the border with Ukraine quite early the next morning. The immigration formalities took a little longer and we had to wait over 2 hours. On the hour-long drive to Chernivtsi we drove through a few villages and life seemed to go on as normal. Only when you looked closer did you see barricaded basement windows and doors. Fortunately, Chernivtsi itself had not yet been affected by rocket attacks, but a few days earlier there had been a few attacks in the region – the sirens also went off at night in Chernivtsi and people fled to their shelters.
In any case, our thoughts are with our local friends and acquaintances and we hope that no child at the Jewish school ever has to go to the air raid shelter to study there during an attack.
Many thanks at this point for the great support of many individuals and for the useful and generous donations, which make it possible for us to provide help on site!
Tamara Huber-Huber
(September 2023)