Jewish Federation Partnership Responds to Cold Weather

In the last few days, a sudden wave of dangerous winter weather has gripped Eastern Europe and parts of the former Soviet Union. The death toll continues to rise as rescue crews evacuate dozens of people from snowblocked villages in Serbia and Bosnia.

In towns across the Balkans, temperatures plunged to their lowest since records started 100 years ago. It was so cold in the capital city of Bulgaria that ATM cash machines froze up, according to Trud newspaper. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) immediately activated its emergency winter response system to supplement the critical care it already gives to tens of thousands of Jewish elderly and needy children across the region.

JDC, one of the overseas agencies supported by the Jewish Federation, mobilizes quickly and efficiently under extreme conditions such as those caused by this deep freeze because an emergency protocol is inherent to its winter relief program throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Especially in the hardest-hit areas of the Balkans and Ukraine, JDC is currently:

• Furnishing heating fuel, blankets, warm jackets, clothes, and boots
• Providing extra food and heating supplies to those who cannot leave home
• Checking in on those who need additional medical care

Among those helped by JDC and its Hesed operations are two elderly Jews in Ukraine:

Bronislav and Tatiana have been married for some 40 years. Both are physically challenged. He walks with a severe limp since childhood, and she lost both of her legs in a car accident as a teenager. They have no family.

Shortly after they were married they moved from Kiev to Shestaki, on a farm in the Chernigov region in north central Ukraine. It is quite remote.

The couple has no source of income save a very meager pension. Tania is their homecare worker, who basically spends up to 6 hours a day in their home. They have extensive medical needs and cannot fend for themselves. She is incredibly devoted to them, and is their lifeline.

Two weeks ago the temperature reached -27 degrees Fahrenheit. Snow and ice made it virtually impossible to reach them by conventional means. (This is not the land of SUVs and 4 wheel drive). Tania was beside herself with worry.

Until she found a way to reach them.

She borrowed the horse of one neighbor and the sleigh of another, and travels to them, a trip that takes 1.5 hours each way. SHE HAS NOT MISSED A DAY since the onset of the horrible weather. The sleigh is filled with food and other supplies, plus hay and blankets to keep the horse warm while waiting for her to finish her work with the couple. On the way each day Tania stops to fill up jugs of water as the couple normally gets their water from a well, which is now frozen solid.

Incredibly, Tania also does the couple's laundry. Near the house there is a spring that does not freeze. She wears two pairs of woolen gloves, and covers them with a pair of rubber gloves, and washes the clothes in the natural spring, outdoors, in this harsh weather!