On Thursday 12 December 2024, the Luxembourg-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce (LUCC) held a Christmas Charity Reception at the Hotel Le Royal in Luxembourg city centre, attracting around 40 people from the Luxembourg business community.
The event was organised in aid of the Great Family project for Velyka Rodybas, a shelter in Kharkiv, Ukraine, housing 80 elderly and disabled people affected by the war, who require constant and essential care, which is only possible thanks to donations.
The Christmas Charity event was organised in the format of a Ukrainian-style Christmas celebration with Christmas decorations, festive food and drink, as well as a cultural programme of song and dance, all together creating a magical atmosphere and festive setting.
The centrepiece of the event was a charity sale and raffle from which all proceeds go to the Velyka Rodyna project; supporting this cause was an opportunity for those present to improve the lives of the shelter's residents, bringing hope, joy and care to them.
The amount raised on the evening has not yet been finalsed.
Beforehand, following a networking crémant reception, the formal part of the evening got underway. Evgenia Paliy, President of the LUCC, talked both in Ukrainian and in English and welcomed Olha Kleitman who runs the shelter in Kharkiv. She also thanked those attending, including representatives from the EIB, for their support as well as from the Hotel Le Royal.
Olha Kleitman, an architect by profession, made a presentation about the shelter which she started shortly after the Russian invasion in 2022 and talked about the affect it had on Kharkiv which had been surrounded by Russian troops with tanks and other military equipment, and only had one road in and out. While they could see smoke in the sky daily from nearby destruction, she said that she was afraid that the Russians would cone knocking on the door of her house.
She explained how she created a team of around 30 people who could help local people living alone, without protection and many disabled. They identified 270 such people, but this number was too much to look after; as a result, they founded a shelter.
The first couple of patients were elderly women who had no heating and almost no food for two weeks; the shelter reached out to relatives (who were in Poland) to see if they could help. The first volunteer the shelter had came from California in America and is still with the team.
She described the atmosphere in the shelter as being one of a large family, with some residents (who are able) taking on certain duties. Some residents recover somewhat and can return to their villages or can move in with relatives, while others need more long-term care. They took in two dogs from a nearby shelter to be companions for residents, many of whom come from farming backgrounds and have been used to being surrounded by animals. They also operate a vegetable garden for onions, tomatoes, etc.
The shelter receives support in other ways too, for example a terrace received a new covered roof, also they converted a van which could take wheelchairs, therefore enabling trips to a nearby zoo, etc.
She concluded by saying that they are in debt to man people and organisations that have helped them, and thanked again those attending for their support. She added that one of the residents had handmade a
Claude Radoux, Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Luxembourg, also spoke briefly and urged everyone to keep raising awareness of what is happening in Ukraine, including the country’s resistance against the Russian invasion.
The formal speeches over, the attendees were treated to various Ukrainian food dishes and drinks, as well as a dance demonstration by Ukrainian nationals living in Luxembourg, most of whom are refugees, with one if them also singing a popular Ukrainian song.
