David Harris
How You Help: “My Daughter is No Longer Ill”: A Winter Story from the Former Soviet Union
The most expensive thing in Belarus in winter? Heating. And prices are growing. “We go to the public baths sometimes, because to wash my hair at home I have to heat the water in the bowl,” said Natalia, a teenager from Bobruisk, Belarus. “It’s very hard. You have to bring the water, to heat it. It’s very uncomfortable.”
“Winter is the hardest period of the year for our clients. We buy firewood and heat to help people that live in old houses, to keep themselves warm,” said Irina Matskevich, the local representative for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), which you help fund, through the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati’s overseas allocations.
The JDC helped Natalia and her mother, Svetlana Mogilyanskie. “The Joint installed here new windows. They fixed our roof,” said Svetlana. “Sometimes I look at my roof and I feel happiness. There were drafts everywhere, all the time. But after they fixed the windows and the roof, it became nice and warm in here, and my daughter is no longer ill.”
When you can barely afford food and medicine, winter coats and heat are a luxury. But children need to wash their hair, they need warmth. That’s why the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), provides winter relief for thousands of the most vulnerable elderly and at-risk families in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is one of over fifty programs and agencies funded in part by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.
The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati: We look at the whole picture, taking into account the diverse needs of the entire community. Together we can do almost anything.
Thanks to you and the help of our partner agencies, Svetlana will be able to heat her family home this coming winter.
