Two trucks of foodstuffs have just arrived in Lviv at the Sant'Egidio humanitarian aid storage facility from Sant'Egidio Communities in Belgium and Germany. Last week another truck arrived from Spain. The solidarity of Sant'Egidio Europe supports the work of the Communities in Ukraine to help internally displaced persons and the population in the eastern and southern regions of the country.
Since the conflict began, Sant'Egidio has intensified its effort to help those fleeing the war zones. So far in its four locations in Ukraine, the Community has helped about 20,000 families and distributed 600 tons of humanitarian aid. The volunteers are often refugees themselves, like this woman, interviewed by TV2000, who is a primary school teacher from Kramatorsk and has been living in Kiev for more than a year now.
"I have been here since April last year. Many hospitals are no longer open there, the shops are closed, there is no more work, so I moved to Kiev with my family. The Community of Sant'Egidio showed me that peace must be built together even through small gestures of solidarity'.
Ludmila is the person in charge of this centre in Kiev. Thanks to the Community of Sant'Egidio many refugees have found a home, are able to receive medicine and then look to the future trying to imagine peace as possible. "We always pray for peace. This is the first thing we do in the Community of Sant'Egidio. Every week we pray in Lviv, in Ivano-Frankivs'k. We certainly know that peace will come, we just don't know when".
Many elderly people receive help at the Community of Sant'Egidio, just like Taras 75 years old, an oncological patient who arrived in Kiev after the Russians destroyed the Kakhovka dam. His home in Kramatorsk no longer exists. " I manage to pay for treatment with the little money I have. I come here to get food and some clothes. Unfortunately, I have lost everything. Thanks to the help of Sant'Egidio I will be able to die in peace, with no hatred".
