Caritas in Khmelnytskyi marked the 10th anniversary of its activities

The Caritas of Khmelnytskyi was founded in 2002. The purpose of the fund was to provide assistance to the large families, to orphans, to “street youth”, to elderly people, to disabled people, to those vulnerable to the crime of human trafficking and its victims, to other Ukrainian who need this assistance. Among the partners of the local Caritas there are both governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, private and corporate philanthropists, and international structures.

Activities of the local Caritas:

Resilient work with children and young people that is aimed at assistance for the minor children from the single-parent and low-income families with the addiction problems, and for the children living on the streets;

Soup kitchens for "street children";

Advisory Center for the Prevention of human trafficking;

Assistance to victims of human trafficking;

Provision of the social, legal and psychological support to vulnerable social groups in the design of relevant documents for social adaptation, arrangement of personal and professional lives of this social category;

Provision of the humanitarian assistance to those in need;

Laundry services for the socially disadvantaged city residents.

At the press conference, on the occasion of the 10^th anniversary of the Caritas of Khmelnitsky, Fr. Ivan Dankevych, who is the director of the organization, emphasized that despite the difficult political, economic and social situation in Ukraine, the perspectives and the prospects of the Fund are visible. Among the purposes of the work of the Caritas of Khmelnytskyi region there is one- to continue the extension of a network of social services provision to the people in need through cooperation with state agencies and public organizations, as well as, through the cooperation with corporate and private donors.

"Our cooperation dates back to the 2004. It was then, when, together with the representatives of Caritas, the local governmental service deployed the preventive work so as to prevent illegal activities and human trafficking. Over the previous years, around 500 motivational training seminars were conducted for various categories and social groups of Khmelnytskyi region, among which there are unemployed women, unemployed men, young people under 35 years old, unemployed servants, women with children under 6 years of age, persons with some disabilities, school graduates and graduates of vocational technical institutions and citizens over the age of 45 years old. Overall, about 8000 people are included.

The representatives of the Caritas Advisory Centre for the Prevention of Human Trafficking are also involved in the preparation and conduction of trainings for the specialists of basic employment centers, of the career-oriented activities for the public, including the on-site actions in the health children camps, the large-scale informational and outreach campaigns, as well as, the round table meetings. They are also active members of the Educational and Career Guidance Board for the population», ─ stresses H. Bashtanova, who is the Head of the Department responsible for the organization of career guidance of the Khmelnytsyi regional Employment Centre.

Father Ivan says that Ukrainians- whether those are the major telecommunication companies, or whether those are the representatives of the medium sized enterprises, or whether those are the ordinary parishioners in the church- willingly respond to the requests for assistance. The only condition and prerequisite for the success of the systematic large-scale charitable activity- is the accountability and transparency of the activities, proved by the experience of a desire to work for the benefit of changes in the civil society of Ukraine.

Nadiya Chorna for the UGCC Department of Information