Fr. Rosochacki: Without support, Ukraine will not survive the winter

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Father points this out. Piotr Rosochacki, head of Caritas Spes in Odessa. He emphasizes that the biggest challenge remains preparing for a new winter of war, especially since the Ukrainian services expect a massive Russian attack on power plants and the heating system, just like last year.

New challenges

The Polish priest, who has been responsible for providing aid in southern and eastern Ukraine since the start of the war, pointed out that every month brings new challenges. He reminded that it is still necessary to combat the consequences of flooding after the dam in Nowa Kachovka was blown up, but also to continuously respond to subsequent needs. – Before the coming winter, we must first of all think about providing people with heating and warm clothes – said Fr. Rosochacki.

– Temperatures are getting lower. So the challenge now is to help people before winter. Tenders are currently being held for the purchase of firewood and stoves that can help heat rooms; we buy warm clothes, warm shoes, warm bedding, that is, something that in a normal world is usually already prepared in advance in every house – explains the Polish priest.

Aid also goes to people whose homes have been destroyed and to whom they are slowly returning. This includes damage caused by floods, but also houses that have been shelled or destroyed as a result of hostilities. – People want to return to them because they know that the longer they are absent, the greater the damage. Everyone who can do that wants to be home again, because it is the best to be home, said the head of Caritas Spes in Odessa. – So there is a fight against time to meet these needs in the context of the coming winter – he added.

The world forgets Ukraine

Fr. Rosochacki told Vatican Radio that the memory of Ukraine is gradually weakening, which translates into a reduction in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the country.

– In practice, this means that with fewer resources we can support significantly fewer people, and the needs are enormous – emphasized the head of Caritas Spes in Odessa. He added that without external humanitarian support, Ukraine would not survive.

– Ukraine cannot survive in the coming weeks without help, both humanitarian and military. Ukraine is 100% dependent on Europe, so without this helping hand it will collapse. And it’s clear that help is always needed, he says. He remembers that the beginning of the war consisted of a line of trucks carrying humanitarian aid, and today these are separate pieces of transport coming straight from Europe. This is partly because you can actually buy almost everything in Ukraine.

– If we have money, we can buy everything on the spot, which means we shorten the logistics chain – we don’t have to travel thousands of kilometers with food products, etc. We can buy them on the spot, but we have to We have money for that, and as we can see, these are also decreasing. Subsidies, different types of programs, projects: there are fewer and fewer of everything, he emphasized.

Fr. Rosochacki pointed out that the last months of the war were also a time for humanitarian organizations to learn how to help most effectively and transparently, so that aid actually reaches those most in need and there is no abuse. To this end, among other things: The largest aid organizations have created a common system that shows who received what help, when and what. This allows us to avoid situations where more successful people received support from different organizations, while others did not receive it at all.

Financial support

The priest points out that the most effective help is financial help. People have specific diseases, they also need specific food and, given the resources, they can take care of themselves. To make the aid system as transparent as possible, large aid organizations, such as the Red Cross, Caritas, Caritas Spes, have been merged into one network. – We have a common database in which we can check whether the financial assistance requested by a particular family is needed; whether they received such assistance from another organization or not. Moreover, we know what amount and for what period. This is therefore the most transparent form of help possible, he sums up. Moreover, the banking system in Ukraine works very well. Beneficiaries never receive cash directly because this is dangerous. Criminals may attack Caritas offices knowing they have a large amount of cash, or rob people receiving such assistance there.