Believing that face-to-face communication with people in need of assistance during crises provides an opportunity to assess their basic needs and challenges, the Lviv Agrarian Chamber conducts regular monitoring visits to institutions that care for particularly vulnerable groups.
Today, 14 August, such a visit took place. The Chairman of the Lviv Agrarian Chamber, Ihor Vuytsyk, and regional coordinator Anna Kushchak visited three institutions caring for children and young people with disabilities and internally displaced persons.
They visited the NGO ‘Dream Workshop’ in Lviv. This organisation’s work focuses on the socialisation of young people with mental health conditions. In specialised focus groups, the young people learn to look after themselves in daily life, communicate with those around them, and master basic household tasks. During the visit, representatives of the Lviv Agrarian Chamber had the opportunity to see how these young people were cleaning the premises of the Dream Workshop following renovation. And they did so with great enthusiasm.
‘For our young people, of course, the assistance provided by the UN World Food Programme is very important. Thanks to the fact that we receive food supplies, our volunteers teach them to prepare a variety of meals for themselves and to eat them at lunchtime, as they are at the office all day. But no less important are the visits by specialists from the Lviv Agrarian Chamber, who bring food, because this helps develop communication skills, which is essential for full socialisation,” noted the organisation’s financial manager, Margarita Andriukhina.
Office manager Khrystyna Shcherba explained that 30 people with disabilities are involved in the organisation’s various programmes; they attend daily workshops and share meals together, so the food received through the Institutional Catering Programme makes a significant contribution to the organisation’s budget, which is funded by charitable donations.
At the Lviv Regional Council’s municipal facility, the ‘St Nicholas Multidisciplinary Educational and Rehabilitation Centre’, nearly 290 children with physical and mental disabilities are receiving education and rehabilitation, including 30 internally displaced persons. The centre has been a participant in the Institutional Food Programme since the beginning of 2024.
“During its participation in the Programme, the Centre has received over 5 tonnes of long-life food products from the UN World Food Programme. We are sincerely grateful for this support, as it enables us to improve the quality of our pupils’ meals. It is wonderful that such benefactors are active in Ukraine,” noted Nataliia Tsymbaliuk, Director of the St Nicholas Multidisciplinary Educational and Rehabilitation Centre.
Incidentally, the Centre is situated in a picturesque location on the banks of a pond in Bryukhovychi, and the children feel very much at home there. Despite the fact that it is currently the holiday period, the centre has organised a summer camp, and the children have the opportunity to relax, swim in the outdoor pool, play on the sports grounds, take part in workshops and other summer activities.
A very interesting visit took place at the shelter for internally displaced persons organised by the charity organisation ‘Bright Dream Charitable Foundation’, which is also located in Bryukhovychi. There, in modular homes and a beautiful old building almost in the middle of the forest, live over 60 people who have been displaced from the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Ms Natalia Magdych, who moved to the shelter with her family from the Kherson region, works as a storekeeper. She is responsible for food, hygiene products and other essentials needed for daily life and the running of the centre. She spoke of the horrors her family had to endure under occupation and repeatedly expressed her gratitude for being taken in by the people of Lviv Oblast. 
Ms Natalia noted that many young people have found work and can support themselves, but the majority of those living in the shelter are elderly people and mothers with young children. They are unable to work and survive solely on state benefits, so food aid is vital for them – absolutely essential.
During the meeting, representatives of the Lviv Agrarian Chamber spoke at length with the residents of the modular settlement, inspecting the living quarters, kitchen, dining hall and storeroom. Those present expressed their gratitude for the assistance provided and voiced their hope for the continuation of humanitarian cooperation.
“Our sincere thanks and deepest gratitude to all people of good will who care for those in need during these difficult times of war. May their kindness be repaid a hundredfold,” added the shelter.
Source: Lviv Agrarian Chamber