Challenge 2021 – SEED Project Greenhouses

Eastern Ukraine today is a war-torn region of abandoned villages with destroyed houses. Yet people are still living there, mostly impoverished families and orphaned children. Those that simply do not have any other place to go. They are desperately holding onto life in the midst of economic difficulties and a daily reality of shelling and gun fire.

But the war, raging in the region for the past six years, and no regular employment available, farming became the only way to survive for the residents of the front-line villages.

Survival

During the warm season, they are working hard to grow fruits and vegetables and preserving them for the winter months. But the government subsidies are hardly covering bill necessities, these people depend on the crops they grow.

“Our garden helps us a lot. It’s a necessity here in the village. You can’t survive without it,” comments a member of the community.

“The last five years we’ve lived off of our garden. There are still no jobs here,” remarks another member of the village, sadly.

CBN’s Orphan’s Promise has been helping vulnerable families in this region from the first days of the war. In one of the frontline settlements, we have come alongside of six large refugee families who lost their houses and all of their possessions in the war.

We trained them and supplied everything necessary to build industrial-sized greenhouses where they can grow at least 200kg of fresh vegetables a month.

The goal of this project was to ensure that daily the people not only had nutritious food, but also gainful employment that they longed for. The enthusiasm was great as the families knew that they were building their future with their own hands.

“Our garden helps us a lot. It’s a necessity here in the village. You can’t survive without it,” comments a member of the community.

A Family Affair

Everyone participated, big and small. As a result, 12 adults received stable, ongoing work with fair wages, and their own families and the whole community now have access to fresh and nutritious vegetables year-round.

“You gave us seeds and finances to build greenhouses and drill a well. Now we have cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and many other vegetables. Our Mum cans them and our Dad sells them at the market. We also help other people. Our lives became so much better,” shares a young boy in the community.

“It was a very difficult period in which we didn’t know how we could survive. We are so grateful to all of you who helped us. Thank you so much,” adds a lady from the community.

Thanks to the invaluable support of the faithful Orphan’s Promise partners, the daily battle for survival for these frontline families got much easier. Their lives were changed as they saw God’s provision and love in action because you cared.

“We prayed and asked God to give us food to eat. Thank you for helping us,” shares a young girl.

“The finances that you gave us to build greenhouses were a big blessing to us. It’s a chance for us to survive and to serve our Lord. A big thank you to all who donated those finances. May God bless you and reward you in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you,” prays a beneficiary of the project living in the community.