L-R: Valeriya Lozitskaya, volunteer; Inna Yaremenko, LUkraine asbl Vice President; François Sauber, Mayor of Walferdange; Nataliya Tkachenko, co-organiser; Evelina Menkovskaya, co-organiser;
Credit: Liza Yermolenko
On Sunday afternoon, LUkraine asbl volunteers prepared a traditional Christmas lunch for Ukrainian refugees at the Centre Culturel Prince Henri in Walferdange.
This festive event, organised with the support of the municipality of Walferdange, was primarily intended for Ukrainians who are staying in refugee shelters in Luxembourg. There have been reports of poor conditions in such accommodation, particularly regarding the food.
As LUkraine asbl Vice President Inna Yaremenko explained to Chronicle.lu at Sunday's event, this was the first shared lunch organised by the local non-profit for Ukrainian refugees in Luxembourg. The main goal was to bring Ukrainian refugees together to celebrate Christmas over a traditional meal (Ukrainians traditionally celebrate Christmas in January, according to the the Julian calendar); it was a symbolic event but also one that aimed to address the aforementioned issues regarding food in refugee shelters in Luxembourg.
Inna recalled the magical nature of past Christmasses in Ukraine, reminiscing in particular about the important tradition of carol singing, and expressed her hope for a normal Christmas that is magical once again in future, when Russia's war of aggression ends.
On the menu on Sunday were traditional homemade Ukrainian Christmas dishes, such as "kutya" (a type of porridge), "borscht" (beet soup) and "varenyky" (dumplings). For dessert, guests enjoyed cake and biscuits, as well as fresh fruit. In addition to preparing the dishes, volunteers brought various Christmas decorations to adorn the tables, and there were a couple of Christmas trees in the large room, thus offering a festive atmosphere for guests of all ages.
The feedback for this event was overwhelmingly positive, with several refugees expressing their gratitude to Inna and the rest of the LUkraine asbl team and volunteers for having organised the lunch.
One attendee, Denys, a Ukrainian film director who is now living in Luxembourg as a refugee, briefly shared his story with Chronicle.lu and recalled that "every Ukrainian person here has an interesting story".
The municipality of Walferdange made the cultural centre available to the non-profit free of charge for this occasion. As Mayor François Sauber explained to Chronicle.lu, Walferdange had been among the first municipalities in Luxembourg to fly the Ukrainian flag outside its buildings. The municipality had also made an empty house available to Ukrainian refugees shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last year; ten people are currently living in this house, and there are several other Ukrainian refugees living in Walferdange at present. Mayor Sauber noted that LUkraine asbl had contacted him recently requesting a space for this Christmas lunch and he was "really delighted" to be able to host this event. He added that he tried to put himself in the shoes of Ukrainian refugees: "If we were in that situation, we would be so happy if people helped us".
Nataliya Tkachenko, LUkraine asbl committee member and co-founder and one of the main organisers of this event (together with volunteer Evelina Menkovskaya), told Chronicle.lu after the lunch: "We would like to thank all the people who responded to our request for help in the ways they could.They cooked traditional food (120 litres of borscht and 45 kilograms of varenyky), brought fruit, desserts and drinks, helped us [with] decorating, serving and cleaning. We have received multiple thankful feedbacks from our guests and hope to be able to organise similar events in the nearest future."
