Six thousand families of Donetsk and Luhansk regions to get potatoes and seeds from the Pope

SEED - food for every day. Providing people in the area of military conflict with seeds for home gardens” - Charity Association “Emmanuel” has started a new project in the framework of the Initiative “Pope for Ukraine.”

Thanks to the Pope’s aid, six thousand families from 36 settlements of Donetsk and Luhansk regions will get packs of seeds (carrots, beets, cabbage, tomatoes, squash, corn, peas, radishes, sorrel, parsley) and potatoes for planting on their land plots. To implement this project Charity Association “Emmanuel” has received a grant amounting to 27 thousand euro.

Provision of seeds will allow families in eastern Ukraine to work on their own land and get food for the whole year. In addition, it will give hope and confidence in the future and bring the joy of the fruits of their work, the project inspirers are confident.

“Many residents of frontline cities in eastern Ukraine have their own plots of land with an area of 5.6 acres. This is enough to plant a garden in the spring and get the crops in the fall that will help survive the winter. It takes only seed,” said the project initiator and head of Emmanuel’s social projects Halyna Kucher.

“We will go to the vegetable gardens even under fire, because this is our land, we will cultivate it every year and live thereby. We will plant the vegetable garden and prepare canned vegetables ... just provide us with sowing material,” residents of frontline villages repeatedly came with such requests in winter to charitable organizations. Thanks to the Initiative “Pope for Ukraine” their requests have been heard.

“In late March, the first truck with planting potatoes for the project came from to eastern Ukraine from Mykolaiv region. Geography in this case was highly important because it is the steppe zone, and planting potatoes ought to be accustomed to climatic conditions where there is not sufficient moisture and sun is burning, which is the case in eastern Ukraine,” Ms. Halyna says.

The project covers the population centers of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Krymske, Toshkivka, Zolote, Bakhmutske, Zaitseve, Pisky, Mayorsk, Konstyantynivka, Hornyak, Kurahovka, Yelyzavetivka, Nykyforivka, Mykolayivka, Pervomayske, Netaylove, Umanske, Biletskr, Vodyane, Syeverne, Druzhkivka, Myronivskiy, Luhanske, Maryinka, Krasnohorivka, Toretsk, Novogrodivka, Verhnyotoretske, Bakhmut, Alexandrovka, Kurakhove, Novoselivka, Konstantynopol, Popasna, Siversk, Lysychansk Novotoshkivske.

Using the Pope’s funds, Charity Association “Emmanuel” had previously installed 335 solid fuel boilers in the private sector of Maryinka, following which it engaged in implementation of the vegetable project.