Shipping container full of food, clothes arrives on the front lines in Zaporizhzhia
The work and generosity of local volunteers and donors is making a difference half a world away.
In mid-December, Southman Gleaners in Reinland, Faith Mission in Winkler, and Mission Eurasia Canada teamed up to send a shipping container filled with dried soup mix and clothing to those in need in Ukraine.
The Russian invasion of the country caused the container to take a bit more of a circuitous route than first expected, shared Winkler’s Martin Harder, board chair of Mission Eurasia Canada.
“It was coming through Odessa, and the bombs were flying around Odessa, so we weren’t sure how it was going to work,” he shared. “Eventually it made it through the port in Odessa but where they were originally destined for, which was a warehouse in Poland for distribution to Ukraine, that road was blocked, so they couldn’t take it there.”
The shipment finally made its way to Zaporizhzhia, a Ukrainian city with deep ties to southern Manitoba.
“When we started with this thing in the first place, my first thought was I hope we get it to Zaporizhzhia, because that’s where our Mennonite people came from. So it was my hope and my prayer that at least some of it would get there. Well, now the whole container got there.”
The soup within came courtesy of Southman Gleaners, which transforms unmarketable vegetables into shelf-stable mixes that require only water to feed 100 people, while Faith Mission provided the gently used clothing from its stockpile of donations collected in support of both Ukraine and Moldova.
Volunteers from Sixteen13 Ministry also lent a hand in this initiative, helping to get it all packed up and ready to go.
“The Ukrainian refugees who came to help us load it up, for them it was equally as meaningful,” Harder shared. “For them to be able to contribute, even if not financially, but just to physically contribute to the welfare of their own people, that spoke huge volumes.”
Mission Eurasia took care of the costs and shipment details to get it all where it could do the most good.
“The need there is huge because it is on the front line of this conflict,” Harder noted. “Families are broken up because of all the soldiers that have to go and fight, and so you have the rest of the family at home trying to fend for themselves.”
The shipment arrived in late February and the goods have been rapidly distributed by partners on the ground in the Ukraine over the past few weeks.
“Thank you so much for your efforts in finding and sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine,” Roman Rakhuba, a leader in the affected area, said in a message to Mission Eurasia supporters last week. “This is incredibly important to us. Food is currently in short supply. Our teams are working hard to distribute the aid as efficiently as possible, and the majority of the containers have been distributed to people living near the front lines.”
“This isn’t about receiving random handouts; it’s about restoring a vital piece of personhood,” the ministry shared in its report on the distribution efforts. “Here, individuals are empowered to choose garments that fit, that suit the season, that resonate with their own style, and that they will genuinely use.
“For many, this simple act rekindles a lost sense of dignity, a flicker of normalcy in lives upended by conflict.”
The food was equally welcomed, helping families put food on the table during challenging economic times.
“It might seem like a small offering in the grand scheme of a war-torn region, a humble packet of dried ingredients,” the agency noted, sharing, however, that for those receiving the soup mixes, it’s a profoundly uplifting gift, “a tangible touch of care, a whisper from far across the world reminding them that they were not forgotten in their difficulties, that their struggles were seen. It offered a moment of reprieve, a gentle ‘disconnection’ from the relentless weight of their daily anxieties.”
Seeing the photos of the distribution of the goods and hearing stories of their impact made all the work behind getting the container filled and shipped more than worth it, observed Harder.
“It’s a feeling of elation … what we actually did here is helping people and we have the reports, we have the pictures,” he said. “When those pictures came in, it was just overwhelming to be able to say, yes, it worked.”
And it was a real community effort across multiple ministries, Harder noted.
“We’re all part of a big puzzle. And this puzzle now has a picture.”
