Ukrainian Community Press Releases
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Ukrainian Community Press Releases |
Dear Readers: Last fall's devasting floods in Western Ukraine were reported here on Brama, and a reliable contributor to the news was Peace Corps Volunteer Juniper Neill. We are fortunate to be able to offer you an update of the situation once again in the form of a personal account by Ms. Neill.
Dear Friends,
Today, unfortunately, is another rainy day in Transcarpthia and the Tysa River rises by the hour, and still we are not recovered from the flood of October 1998. The humanitarian aid distribution continues, today my NGO has given out boxes of Humanitarian Daily Rations (from the US govt.) to 12 people (a slow day) and new people are arriving every minute. I believe that today we will give out the last of our aid supplies. It seems the assistance people require to meet daily living needs is unending. A woman of perhpas sixty years of age is standing next to me signing the aid distribution tracking book. She is in worn clothes with western logos, I recognize it as humanitarian aid.
It seems impossible that seven months have passed since the flood, but I suppose to a larger extent, for the people suffering from the damage, it must seem much longer. Winter was long and cold this year, bringing us the most snow our region has seen in 30 years. This harsh reality could potentially have put thousands of people at risk but for one fact...the outpouring of humanitarian assistance to our region was phenominal.
Not only did many of you send packages, money, and contacts, but organizations such as Counterpart Humanitarian Assistance Program, Caritas of Ukraine, Red Cross, Samarityani of Ukraine and Hungary, and WWF of Austria and Hungary, were able to send a constant supply of warm clothing, food supplies, medicine and hospital equipment which was badly needed. Caritas, in cooperation with my NGO, has in fact been working non-stop for the past five months distributing food to 450 of the most needy families.They will continue food distribution for the next two months. Also, within the past month we've been working with Caritas of Czech Republic to help develop a new summer program of reparing homes of poor families. I went on a scouting mission to a remote mountain village with Caritas and met with an older man who is blind, living alone, whos roof and floor are filled with gaping holes. I don't know how he made it through the winter.
Even given all this assistance, the need always seems greater than what any of us can do. At this moment approximately 20 people have stormed our small office. They all want aid, and are desperatley laying out their individual hardships. Mostly they are middle aged women pleading because they have many children, no money, no food...etc. Now my director is yelling above the clamor, trying to maintain some order. He tells them that most everything has been given to to village mayors, and that if they can't always expect the humanitarian assistance. That they need to think about how to get a job. One woman replys that she and her husband are willing to work, but there are no jobs. He tells one old man that because of his age maybe he can't work, but the other woman, and their husbands are fully chastised about their current desperate situation. One woman is badly burned, her whole face like somekind of mask, her fingers burned to the knuckles on each hand, her daughter is also burned. These are old wounds and I'm offered an explanation that this woman has self inflicted these wounds in order to get humanitarian assistance. I can only pray this isn't true. Our project accountant tells me that another women pleading her case is an alcoholic. Thus labelled and fully chastised, the silent and teary group are led off to receive the last boxes of humanitarian daily rations. Sometimes, after witnessing countless situations of this type, I wonder that there is anything "humane" in this. Now a new group has entered. My boss has been arguing with them for 20 minutes now, these woman won't be so easily chastised, but we have no aid left. There is nothing to be done.
I have to believe that this problem has more to do with the general deplorable economic and social situation of rural Transcarpathia than it has to do with the flood. As I've offered in earlier letters, the situation here before the flood was desperate, with 70% unemployment, and some of those who are employed, like doctors and teachers, have received as of April 1999, salary for only half of December 1998.
The flood of October '98 only made terminal the assistance needed for an already devestated population. As long as the river holds the spring snow melt, I can honestly say that to a large extent, any further large scale humanitarian food and clothing program might do more harm than good, unless carried out in a more thoughful manner. The distribution of aid, at this point so long after the food, is dividing communities through corrpution, causing violent outbreaks during distribution, and creating a general sense of expectancy in the general population for long-term hand-outs. I believe that any further humanitarian aid must be directed at targets which serve the larger population such as schools, hospitals, and perhaps churches. These institutions are without any doubt, in need of assistance, including food for patients and children too poor to bring a lunch to school, furniture, coal for heating, medicine, and general supplies. My view, although perhaps not popular with certain individuals or organizations, is after all, only my opinion developed through first hand experience, of the situation of a specific region in Transcarpathia.
As I write, the rain has turned to snow, and I'm wondering when this long winter will end, and how much more the river can hold.
Yours sincerely,
Juniper Neill
US Peace Corps Volunteer
April 19, 1999PS. Many of you may have sent packages of aid directly to me, if so, please let me know so that I can reconcile this with my records and ensure that these items actually arrived. Thank you again for all your support and actions of kindness.
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