Community

This year, the community celebrated 20 years anniversary and, while preserving its fundamental values, despite the challenges associated with the Russian-Ukrainian war, it keeps developing and growing.

In 2023, 68 people lived in the Community. During the year, 7 companions of “Oselya” signed declarations with a family doctor, 1 person registered for disability, 6 people renewed their documents, and 2 received a pension.

In the community, companions have psychological support, and newcomers participate in social  training – three-month courses that include addiction therapy, personal development training, and the history of the Emmaus movement. In 2023, two social training courses were held. Companions of “Oselya” who are addicted participate in AA groups.

11 adults and 4 children live in the social hostel of “Oselya” in Lviv.

15 companions of “Oselya” voluntarily or by conscription serve in Armed Forces of Ukraine.

This year we mourn for three of our companions who passed away: Nazar died at war, Alla’s heart could not bear the grief for two sons who are at war, Ivan died from an uncurable illness. This year, we continued to improve the living conditions in the community’s houses: we carried out sanitary repairs and changed the furniture in the companions’ rooms and equipped 6 additional rooms (x2 persons), two additional bathrooms, a room for meetings and trainings, a space for sports. Repairs were made in the boiler room. We did it thanks to the financial support of Emmaus Europe and the Abbe Pierre Foundation. Refrigerators and freezers, furniture and kitchen equipment were financed by the Hungarian Ecumenical Aid Service.

Social enterprise: collecting used goods

In order to generate funds for the everyday needs of the Community and solidarity actions for homeless people, Oselya runs a social enterprise.

The main activity is the collection of used items (clothes, shoes, household appliances, books, dishes, toys, etc.), through containers located at OKKO gas stations and parishes. Large items like furniture and appliances are collected from people’s home by a truck. This year, we had 34 containers in various locations in Lviv. We still have problems with people who damage and rob containers.

In total, we collected about 762,968 kg of clothes in the containers in 2023. They were sorted and prepared for reusing: distributed daily for free to homeless and low-income people in the Center of Support (in 2023 – 10,415 distributions), or given for a donation in charity stores. Items were also handed over to the following organizations: “Dream Workshop”, “Undefeated Kharkiv”, the Volunteer Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine LMGO “Kalyna”, Ukrainian Youth of Christ, NGO “Healthy Future”, NGO “Mutual Aid Community “Nasha Khata” and others.

The ecological impact of collecting used goods is important. “Oselya” recycles unusable clothes (73,522 kg in 2023).

132,400 kg of goods we find in the containers cannot be reused or recycled (broken toys, mismatched or destroyed shoes, worn, torn haberdashery, dirty torn synthetic clothes, ordinary household waste). The Lviv City Council and transport companies help us remove of this garbage to landfills.

Social enterprise: charity stores

Charity store are the main source of support for the Community and solidarity actions. Here, for a charitable donation, you can buy goods donated by the residents of the city.

At the end of 2023, the lease term for the premises in which our charity store in Vynnyky operated for 10 years expired, so we had to look for a new premises. In DecembercCharity store “Emaus-Oselya” opened its doors to visitors at a new location at Sukhomlynsky street, 36.

At the social hostel “Oselya” there is a charity store of the “Emaus-Oselya” Workshop of Good Deeds, which raises funds for the maintenance of the hostel and for solidarity actions.

Social enterprise: furniture workshop

The furniture workshop continued to operate this year. At the end of the summer, we moved it from Vynnyky to Lviv to the premises of the Workshop of Good Deeds. Furniture repair was carried out by order of residents of Lviv and Vynnyky. In total, in 2023, in the workshop we repaired 170 pieces of furniture (sofas, armchairs, chests of drawers, etc.)

The Center of Support for people who have lost their home named after Olesya Sanotska

On February 14, 2023, the Center of Support named after Olesya Sanotska opened its doors to visitors. During the year, 2159 people received services here in a spacious building and in comfortable conditions.

Thanks to the activities of the Center, homeless people: 1. talked to social worker and a psychologist; 2. were provided with the hygiene supplies; 3. received sanitary and hygienic services (shower, haircut, laundry). 4. received clothes and shoes; 5. had hot meals.
There is a medical office in the Center and a family doctor sees visitors once a week. Here, people receive referrals for fluorography and pediculosis cleaning, medications and nursing care.
In the Center, we offer visitors to spend time playing chess and table tennis, participate in art workshops and see a movie.
In December 2023, a social bus financed by Lviv City Council transported people once a week from downtown to the Centre.
During the terrible war that is debilitating our people, the Center has become Noah’s ark, in which hundreds of people seek comfort and help. The operation of the Support Center was carried out thanks to the Community’s earnings and donations from benefactors.

Solidarity actions

During 2023, every Thursday companions prepared lunch for a hundred homeless people and distributed it in the city center.
During street work, we invite people to use the services of the new Center of Support named after Olesya Sanotska. In 2023, we made 52 food distributions.
During the year, this initiative was supported by different volunteers like seminarians of the Lviv Theological Seminary of the Holy Spirit UGCC, students of the 8th grade of the private gymnasium “Renaissance” and their parents and students of the Ukrainian Catholic University.
On December 7, 2023, Saint Nicholas visited the homeless to distribute food and 300 gifts.
In 2023, for Christmas and Easter we invited the visitors of our Center to have a meal together.

20 years of community

This year marks 20 years since the first companion settled in the building of the Oselya. Since then, the community has grown significantly and developed its activities, but the values and principles of the organization to help those who have the most difficulty have remained the same.
A number of events were timed to this date: street garage sale, creation of fashionable images, the field kitchen, photo exhibitions of Rostyslav Shpuk “Without Signs of Artistic Life” and “Oselyata” by Robin Alisha Clemens and writer Lisa Weeda from the Netherlands, master classes for adults and children, table tennis and outdoor entertainment, tours to the “Oselya” recycling center, live broadcasting of radio Skovoroda of conversations about dignity and mutual aid, charity lottery.
A special issue of the magazine “Prosto neba” was published, and in this issue we wrote about what it means to lose a home and how to rebuild it. We shared our experience of working with homeless people and collected testimonies, reflections and stories from people who have this terrible experience.

Membership in the Emmaus International Movement

Since 2010, “Oselya” has been a member of the Emmaus international and works according its principals and values.
This year Emmaus Europe supported the reconstruction of the Center of Support. The representatives of the secretariat paid us a visit on January 6 on the day of its opening.

During 2023, we received three humanitarian transports from our friends from the Emmaus Longjumeau community (France) and the MFS-EMMAUS community (Bosnia and Herzegovina). We are grateful for the help and passed it on to those who need it more.
Companions of “Oselya” Holender Myron, Sokov Viktor, Brylov Volodymyr and Olya Henda took part in a several-day meeting of Emmaus communities in Srebrenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The participants visited the Memorial Museum of the Victims, took part in the conference and a football match with fellow communities from all over Europe.
Companion Volodymyr Sukhodolsky stayed in the Emmaus-Lublin Community for a month.
In October 2023, the Emmaus Assembly of Europe took place in the city of Iasi (Romania). It was attended by 250 participants from 17 countries. The part of the program “For a free Ukraine!” was devoted to the topic of the Russian war, during which the representative of “Oselya” Nataliya Sanotska shared how the companions of “Oselya” have been helping those who suffer the most since the first days of the war, she thanked friends from Emmaus for their solidarity and support. The Ukrainian writer, President of Ukrainian РЕН and Member of our organization Andrey Kurkov addressed the participants of the assembly with an appeal not to stop helping Ukraine in difficult times. The part ended with a panel discussion with Tamara Zlobina, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, head editor in the feminist media platform Gender in Details, Hryhoriy Semenchuk, national delegate in the Regional Council of Emmaus Europe and Francesco Vignarza, coordinator of the Italian Network for Peace.
We are happy that we are heard, understood and supported in every way by our friends from Emmaus in different countries of Europe.

Leisure and education

Companions and employees of “Oselya” actively participate in trainings, spread the idea of the organization and enrich their own experience.
This year, the companions went on an excursion to Shevchenkivskyi Grove, visited the artistic performance “Harmony of the Spheres” at the Lviv National Opera.
Ukrainian and English language courses are held in “Oselya” for companions.
Employees of Credit Agricole Bank conducted a lecture on financial literacy, and psychologists from the international humanitarian organization HIAS, which provides support to people in difficult situations, conducted a practical course on overcoming stress.

Public relations

“Oselya” continued active cooperation with Ukrainian and foreign organizations. For the first time this year, the Department of Social Protection of the Department of Humanitarian Policy of the Lviv City Council purchased social services from Oselya.
During the year, national and foreign mass media were interested in the activities of the Oselya. A publication about our work appeared in a daily newspaper in Finland, a magazine in Japan and in American magazine VQR (A NATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERATURE & DISCUSSION) with excellent photos by Robin Alysha Clemens.
During the year, “Oselya” was visited by numerous guests. Among them, as part of the USAID “HOVERLA” project, we were visited by local government officials, representatives of communal enterprises and other subdivisions of territorial communities of Poltava and Volyn regions, as well as community leaders, social workers and public activists of Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
The Oselya’s recycling center was visited by the director of the city agglomeration department, Mr. Yuriy Lukashevskyi, and the head of the Waste Management Department, Petro Kinash.
In the community, students of the Social Pedagogy / Social Work program of UCU were practicing.

A book about the Community

Maryana Sokha’s book “Now we stand together” was published this year. In her fiction novel, Maryana wrote about the life of homeless people in Lviv and how the young artist Olesya Sanotska founded a community and built a new home together with the homeless. The book draws attention to the problem of homelessness, depicts ambiguous portraits of companions of “Oselya”, who are going through a difficult process of rehabilitation and the strength of the community. The novel received awards from “Smoloskyp” and “Coronation of Words” competitions.

Donors of “Emmaus-Oselya” in 2023

Dodo Socks, BERTA group, Wholesale Market “Shuvar”, Chocoboom, Together (mental center), LLC “Komel”, Dynamo Invest, LLC TVK “Lvivholod”, PNVP “Yar-step”, LLC “Swichado”, FOP Gileta H.M., Auchan, Dobra voda, Concern Khlibprom PJSC, “Zahidhlib” LLC, family Mykhalyny Andriy and Oksana Ozhanska Nataliya, Goliyan Bohdanta, Idi Haeberli and Pius Sialm (Switzerland), Partnerschaft mit Osteuropa e.V.” (Germany) and others.

Partners of Emmaus-Oselya in 2023

International movement “Emaus”; Lviv city council; Lviv City Employment Center; LMR waste management department, Ukrainian Catholic University, Holding of Emotions “!FEST”; Brewery “Carlsberg Ukraine”, Social Services Center “Zherelo”; media hub Your City, Galnet, Sykhiv Media, Zaxid.Net, Lviv.Media, Bishop Venedikt Aleksiychuk; PJSC “Concern Galnaftogaz” and the network of gas stations OKKO.
Step-in , Malta Aid Service, Hungarian Ecumenical Aid Service, HIAS.
Parish communities of the Church of St. Archangel Michael, the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Chapel of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Church of St. Clementius the Pope, the Church of the Holy Martyrs of Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia, the Church of the Exaltation of the Fair and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.