The 24th of February

Fastiv, 24.02.2022

Dear Friends and Partners!

Today’s morning on February 24 became even more tragic for us, we woke up at 5:34 am from explosions at military facilities near Fastiv.

Thank you very much for all your warm words of support to us, they are very dear and valuable to us. The situation is as follows. As you can see on our website – on February 18, we proposed the strategy of the House of St. Marcin for a difficult time. And we opened the project “Mobile camp for the children of war”. As part of this project, we accepted the forty-first and forty-second group of children from Gnutowe, Tałakiwka, Pionerske, Mariupol. As of today, we are giving shelter to 28 children and 2 guardians, who are looked after by the Christian Resource Center – Mariupol and their “Ark of Peace” Center. We know from the reports that a fierce fight is taking place near Mariupol, and some of the parents of these children have lost their homes, but their life is not in danger. We are coordinated with our partners in the east and we are waiting for the forty-third group – 8 people from Mariupol and another group – 9 people from Bachmut. We have also welcomed families who are leaving Kiev and need shelter for the night! A few days ago, we were also contacted by the director of the orphanage from the front, who asked us to take in 30 orphans and we are waiting for their arrival in the coming days. We try to buy food, beds, mattresses, medicines, generators, fuel, so that the following days are relatively safe for our pupils. In this difficult time, we want to be open and provide basic services to children: rehabilitation, development space for the youngest children, a Catholic school, a single mother center, a kitchen for the needy!

In addition to these groups from the East of Ukraine, 6 mothers in need and 10 of their children have found shelter in our center, the youngest twins are only 4 months old. We pray and stay calm.

– And some positive moments. Today, Fat Thursday and the children enjoy donuts and pizza and rest together.
God is our refuge and we pray for our soldiers!
With prayer, Fr. Michał OP