Olesya Sanotska, founder and leader of “Emmaus – Oselya” was born in Lviv in 1970. She graduated from Ivan Trush Lviv State College of decorative and Applied Arts. She worked as a decorator and was a volunteer of the NGO “Doroha”. After couple study visits to Polish organizations dealing with addiction and homelessness, Olesya began to study social work. In 2002, together with her colleagues she founded the “Oselya” community.
“In 2001, as a volunteer from another public organization, I was invited to Poland to get acquainted with organizations working with homeless people. We saw people with an difficult past, who live and work together, and organize something. There was a friendly atmosphere there. I realized that I would also like to do something similar. After returning home, we were wondering if it would be possible to do something like that in Lviv”.
“In 2003, for the first time, we organized Christmas Eve together with Andrey Sheptytsky hospital. This event one again convinced me that I want to work with those people. At the same time, I realized that my work is needed not only to the people we help, but also to me. I can be useful and this brings me pleasure”.
Olesya was responsible for Oselya for 14 years. From the old small house in Vynnyky, she built a powerful organization, one of the best in Ukraine, engaged in helping homeless people. Many innovative projects for Ukraine like the community of life and work, social entrepreneurship, clothes containers, charity shops, social hostel emerged in Lviv thanks to the efforts of Olesya Sanotska. She helped hundreds of people and saved a lot of lives.
“We want to work not only with homelessness. Homelessness is a very narrow definition of the problem. “Oselya” aims to help people to find sense in their lives, those people who for various reasons, have been on the margins of society”.
“The community of “Oselya” is not a shelter for the homeless. This is a place where people who feel responsible for what’s happening in the world, and people who have lost their sense of life, have united to help themselves and others. That’s how our Community functions as well as Emmaus communities in 40 countries of the world. This is a certain style of life. A person not only finds a roof over his head, but begins to live differently”.
“This idea is needed not only for the homeless people, but also for everybody in Ukraine – the idea of self-help, the idea that there are no useless people. Society can not afford to exclude someone. In a society that respects itself, every person should feel safe. And how can one be happy when there are people who are dying of starvation and who are dying in the streets? In a post-communist state where homelessness was not recognized as a social problem, we needed to talk a lot about it, so people will understand us”.
At the age of 47, in April 2016, Olesya Sanotska passed away because of a serious illness. Her deeds are alive. The community “Emmaus-Oselya” continues to work on the principles founded by Olesya and always keep memory about her.