Each year, through our Collaborative Lenten Gift, we reach out as a community to one particular place of suffering, amid so many in the world. This year, we will open our eyes and hearts to the plight of those suffering in Ukraine and reach out through our support of City of Goodness through the Ukraine Forward initiative.
On February 24, 2022, people all around Ukraine woke up to air raid sirens and bomb explosions. Their lives changed forever. Civilian infrastructure has been destroyed and people are cut off from sources of food and water. Many people have been left homeless and are hiding in basements, subways and bomb shelters.
City of Goodness is a social service and support center that was originally established to care for women and children fleeing domestic violence. With the onset of the war, City of Goodness has become a shelter for women with children, families (with their pets!) and elderly people from all over Ukraine. They have also taken in evacuees from three orphanages from the South of Ukraine – children from birth to 7 years – and are constructing additional buildings (with bomb shelters) so they can accommodate another two hundred evacuee children. They settle them, feed them, provide medical treatment, and try to make this time a little less traumatic for the little ones.
Through our Lenten Gift, we will help City of Goodness build a new history. Our financial support will help fund construction costs as well as the constant need for food, clothing, utilities, teachers, and medical and psychological care.
Throughout Lent, in the bulletin, via email, on our website and social media, we will share this story with you.
Our gift will allow each of us to share in easing the suffering
and to answer Lent’s clarion call to love extravagantly.
TELLING THE STORY
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As you know, our 2023 Collaborative Lenten Gift Collection was for the benefit of Misto Dobra (“City of Goodness”) in Ukraine. Working with Ukraine Forward, Inc., a U.S. non-profit based at Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church in Jamaica Plain, our Collaborative Service Commission learned how City of Goodness provides a home for displaced mothers and children (and their pets!), including victims of domestic violence and those who, due to poverty, face the threat of having their children removed and placed in orphanages. Since the invasion almost 2 years ago, it has also served hundreds of women and children displaced ...
We are overjoyed and grateful to tell you that our 2023 Collaborative Lenten Gift raised $37,678.60 for City of Goodness in Ukraine! Earlier this week, Fr. Jim, Kelly Meraw, and Stephen Ridge from our Collaborative Service Commission presented our gift to Fr. Yaroslav Nalysnyk, pastor of Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church in Jamaica Plain, and members of the board of Ukraine Forward, Inc., the U.S.-based non-profit that will disperse the funds to City of Goodness. We were blessed to meet a young Ukrainian boy who is here in Boston with his mother to receive specialized medical care at a ...
As you know, our 2023 Collaborative Lenten Gift raised awareness and funds for City of Goodness in Ukraine. City of Goodness was a social service and support center that, with the onset of the war, has become a shelter for women with children, and families (and their pets!) from all over Ukraine. They settle them, feed them, provide medical treatment, and try to make this time a little less traumatic for the little ones. They have also taken in evacuees from 3 orphanages (children from birth to 7 years) and are working to construct additional buildings (with bomb shelters) so ...
Throughout Lent, the Service Commission shared the story of City of Goodness with you. We've told you how, on February 24, 2022, people all around Ukraine woke up to air raid sirens and bomb explosions and their lives changed forever. We told you how, in response, City of Goodness has transformed from a social service and support center into a shelter for Ukrainians fleeing war and violence. It is now a home that gives security, comfort, and love to women with children (and their pets!), elderly and disabled people, and evacuees from orphanages – children from birth to 7 years ...
Since the onset of war over a year ago, City of Goodness has become a shelter, a home that gives security, comfort, and love for women with children (and their pets!), elderly and disabled people, and evacuees from orphanages – children from birth to 7 years. They are now in the process of constructing additional buildings so hundreds more children and moms can be safe. Photos from their Instagram account @misto.dobra show some of the work in progress: This place will become a rescue for those who lost their home due to war... for those who have no parents waiting ...
It has now been just over a year since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Army expected quick victory, but instead were met with fierce resistance from the Ukrainian Army and Ukraine’s many citizen militias. Russia has received widespread international condemnation, with the United Nations General Assembly condemning the invasion and demanding a full withdrawal of Russian forces. The invasion has caused tens of thousands of deaths on both sides and instigated Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II, turning more than 8 million Ukrainians into refugees, with another 8 million people displaced ...
As you know, one of the ways in which our Collaborative observes Lent is by making a significant gift to support an organization or group which seeks to alleviate suffering. Over the last few years, local, regional, and national issues have come to the forefront as the Service Commission works to select a gift recipient. Last year, we made a very significant gift to Boston Health Care for the Homeless Project, and the year before to our own SJSP Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. This year, international tragedy suggests itself as being an appropriate way to ...
On February 24, 2022, people all around Ukraine woke up to air raid sirens and bomb explosions. Their lives changed forever. Russia has bombed hospitals, kindergartens, and densely populated residential areas. Civilian infrastructure has been destroyed and people are cut off from sources of food and water. Many people have been left homeless and are hiding in basements, subways and bomb shelters. City of Goodness is a social service and support center that was originally established to care for women and children fleeing domestic violence. With the onset of the war, City of Goodness has become a shelter for women ...
