The Maltese Help Service works on Maidan for the second month
Translated by: Julia Heki Kou
Source: http://www.credo-ua.org/2014/01/108669 credo-ua.org
From the beginning of Maidan in Kyiv, Maltese people from Ivano-Frankivsk cooked and distributed 125,000 portions of hot meals and more than half a million portions of hot tea.
“Land of the free and home of the brave” – this is carefully and accurately written on the muddy back window of our bus, which is always parked at Maidan in Kyiv next to the Maltese field kitchen. These words exactly describe the feelings and spirit of citizens of the country, who came to the main square of the capital demanding changes in the country. Hundreds of thousands of people every day participate in protests, demonstrations, events of support of illegitimately repressed people. They came to the capital from different parts of Ukraine, often having spent their last money for a ticket. People sleep in tents at Maidan, or in houses of Kyiv citizens, who take thousands of people to their homes. For many of them this is the only possibility to get warm, eat something or drink some warm tea from the field kitchen at Maidan.
Keeping their faith alive and helping those in need – this is the motto of the non-profit organization Maltese Help Service. Helping people in need is the true manifestation of brotherly love, and also the hope for justice and peace in the country and the whole world. That is why already on Dec. 2nd Maltese service from Ivano-Frankivsk had put their field kitchen at Maidan. 20 volunteers are engaged in cooking and the distribution of food, working 14 hours per day, and distributing during the most heavy days up to 3-4 thousand portions of hot meals (vegetable soup, buckwheat with sauce, soup), and, just imagine, 3,000-5,000 liters of tea, which make about 12-15 thousand portions. Working this way at Maidan, we celebrated New Year’s Eve and the joyful Christmas feast. On New Year’s Eve the volunteers cooked traditional salad “Olivier”, numbering up to 200 kg. While preparing spiritually for Christmas, they didn’t forget traditional Christmas dishes: kutia, borshch, mushroom soup… Everything was done for people to feel the spirit of the feast, a bit of home warmth and cosiness.
In this Christmas time we want to thank everyone warmly, those who help us, who pray for us, who provide material, technical or financial support. Special thanks to the citizens of Kyiv and the people from nearby cities and villages, coming every day to the kitchen to help, to the volunteers from the whole country and from abroad. We thank all Maltese people for “family” support, we thank our partners from Ukraine, Austria, Germany, and especially the eparchy of Trir. Thanks to our donators from Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Lviv and Kyiv, Ukrainian communities in Chicago and Munich.
Our contacts at Maidan:
MTS – 0999174103 and Kievstar – 0688569818
Ivano-Frankivsk Maltese Help Service
Voices of Ukraine 