Elder Care

Thanks to sky-high inflation, retirement for many in Ukraine is the start of a race for survival. Not even well-paid jobs or university degrees can help as mounting hospital bills, increasing living costs and being abandoned by family begin to take prominence. Simply put, the social contract is broken in Ukraine and across the six countries we work in. 

The average pension is $2/day in Ukraine and more than two thirds of the country's 12.3 million pensioners receive even less. $2 is equivalent to a purchase of 2.7L of milk, making the pension hardly enough to purchase food with, let alone to pay for a place to call home. 

Here at MWB, we find ourselves in contact with ever greater numbers of elderly who are very often treated as worthless, are overlooked and ignored by society. Those who come to our community centers are hungry, sick, lonely and battle-weary from the constant struggle of trying to stay alive. We reach out to them with hot meals, visits, bringing them to our community centers and soup kitchens and, if they want to, to church.

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