Communications

Earlier this week we were graced by a visit from MCC communications. A writer and photographer made the trip to Ukraine from Winnipeg and Akron respectively. They are here for around 10 days and will be traveling around Ukraine to interview people and see a part of what MCC is doing here.

After spending their first couple of days in Zaporozhye they traveled to Kharkov (in the Northeast corner of Ukraine) to meet with some of the partners; the goal being to interview them and write an article on economic development and loan funds for The Common Place, the MCC news magazine. There were three interviews there: one with the manager of the loan fund and two with loan recipients. The two recipients were a family that is farming around 11 hectares of land and another family that is growing tomatoes in a greenhouse.

We then traveled to Donetsk/Makeevka and spent another half-day interviewing another loan fund manager and three more recipients. These recipients were a guy who raises roses in a greenhouse, two ladies that have a large garden and raise ducks and a guy who runs an auto parts store. This was especially interesting for me because MCC didn’t give a grant to this fund this year, and since I have been mainly working with those who were given grants, I did not have much first-hand experience with this loan fund.

We spent the second half of the day talking to people at Good Shepherd. It was very interesting to participate in these interviews because I was given a forum to find out some answers to a lot of my own questions.

I think the experience was generally positive for “communications” and was also interesting for me. We wanted these people to see and hear the best of what is going on here and I found myself reflecting on that a bit. One can make direct correlations between communications and fund raising, and we want our supporters to hear about all the good things that are happening here. But most things are more complicated than the “Wow, look at all the great things your contributions have done.”

I’m glad to show mainly positive things, but sometimes it upsets me that that is all we talk about. Focusing just on the positive results and thinking that if we don’t see them, the negatives aren’t there, results in an oversimplification of many situations. I am sure this will continue to be a difficulty in the future for me. In thinking back on time in Ukraine, I will probably glaze over the complications and remember only the positives, which is natural. And that is most likely a good thing.

Dave

Parents' visit

Last week we said goodbye to my parents. They spent two weeks with us, traveling, sightseeing and seeing Donetsk, Makeevka and DCU.

We started the trip by meeting in Warsaw, Poland, and immediately took the train to Krakow, where we spent several days taking in the sights of Krakow’s historic Old Town. We also visited the WWII Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, not far from Krakow. We haven’t spent much time in Eastern Europe beyond the Ukrainian borders, so it was interesting to see another Eastern European country, and enjoyed the variety and change of pace from Ukraine. Poland joined the EU not long ago, and is significantly ahead of Ukraine economically, at least in the areas we visited. We enjoyed the comforts of produced by Poland’s economic stability, without having to pay Western European prices – a nice combination.

After Krakow, an overnight train took us across the border to Lvov, Ukraine, in search of some remnants of our Mennonite heritage there. We ended up touring the village of Odinoke, formerly inhabited by Mennonites in the 1800s. Lvov is famed for its beautiful buildings and variety of architecture, and we took in some of that on the one day that it didn’t rain.

Mom and Dad got a true taste of train travel, Ukranian-style, on the 25-hour ride from Lvov to Donetsk, the last three without air conditioning on a hot afternoon. We then spent several swelteringly hot days in Donetsk,
showing my parents the city, our work, friends, church, etc. The rest of the time we sat inside, in front of the fans, drinking black currant juice (Dad’s new favorite).

For the last part of our trip we headed to Kiev and saw the main sights there, including Orthodox churches and the long and winding cobblestone street, Andrevsky Spust, which satisfied our souvenir needs. While in Kiev we discovered Puzata Hata, (which means “fat house” in Ukrainian) a cafeteria-style Ukrainian restaurant, the best way to try as many different kinds of Ukrainian cuisine as you can eat, all in one meal. Dave and I returned to sample more the day Mom and Dad left. The name is appropriate, because if you ate there too often, I’m afraid you would become as fat as a house.

So now we’re back in Donetsk and getting ready for the school year. It’s the season of meetings, so they takes a lot of my time, but my classes don’t start until Sept. 9, so summer’s not quite over quite yet!

PHOTOS: In Krakow's main square, Dave and Dad with a Mennonite-built village well near Lvov

Laura

Kiliya Trip

A while back I took a trip to Kiliya (Ukraine) to visit the loan fund there, and to see several of the projects that the fund has lent money to. The board of the fund there consists of the pastors of three Baptist churches in that area. Kiliya is in the somewhat disconnected southwest corner of Ukraine. Just across the river to the east is Romania and Moldova is a short drive to the north. Even though it has a moderate-sized shipbuilding factory, statistically it is located in one of the most impoverished regions of Ukraine.

Wages from the factory are very minimal and those who are not employed there are hard-pressed to find another source of income. One member of the fund’s board told me that both his son and son-in-law are long-haul truck drivers, based 800 km away in Chernivtsy. Both of them have young families who live in Kiliya and had last seen their fathers/husbands about two months ago.

Needless to say, most people are looking for a way to earn/save money. One way that is currently very popular, especially among the Baptist community, is to purchase small plots of land to raise strawberries. These plots of land are usually around 250m² and a poorly kept one will sell for around $100. I was told that, with work, one of these plots will produce enough strawberries to earn $50-250 per year.

I was shown around 20 plots of land that have all been purchased in the past five years using loans from the loan fund. I was also shown several plots that the Baptists hope to purchase in the future. Based on what I saw, it requires a lot of work. First they have to clean up the brush and till the plot the first time. They then plant small, healthy offshoots of their own or their neighbors strawberry plants. In the picture, Stas and Pavel (sons of one of the aforementioned truck drivers) are working to replant a freshly cleared patch. These are not the traditional strawberries that produce for 3-4 years, but instead are dug up every summer after production has ceased. The small, healthy offshoots are then replanted and will produce again the following year.

So many people there have taken out small loans ($100-350) and put in a lot of labor to receive significant returns (especially by their standards). It is an exciting process to hear stories about their projects and even more interesting to see them in person.

Dave

Economic Development

The majority of my responsibilities of my relatively new job in economic development involve taking trips to visit our 14 “partners” (groups of people who operate loan funds and credit unions) throughout Ukraine and one in Russia. Each year we have “projects” with (which means we give small grants to) 5-6 of these partners, so the number of trips is manageable. During these visits we talk about questions and concerns that MCC and/or the partners have. These conversations are usually about 2 things.

First, they are about the operation of the funds. This is a difficult discussion for me to participate in because I am not a specialist in running loan funds or credit unions or economics in general. However, I am trying to be helpful by learning as much as I can, especially about what seems to be standard here. I am also responsible for networking partners. Often a partner has questions and finds it helpful to talk to other partners who may have more experience and be able to advise the next step of development. This networking is also done at an annual economic conference, this year scheduled for November 17-18. MCC covers the bus/train fares of two people from each of the funds to get together (in Zaporozhye) and talk about issues with their funds.

Second, we talk about MCC’s strategic planning process. This is a relatively new process for them (and us) and has proven to be a bit difficult for many. I have not yet had the privilege of writing the original project “plans” (for the 5-6 projects mentioned above) with the partners, but I have my first round of this to look forward to in December. After that, twice during the year the partners are asked to submit “progress reports” which let us know how they are doing with their plans. It takes a lot of time and encouragement to get reports back, especially clear and open ones that provide sufficient answers to all of the questions. It has been my experience that many partners have a fear that MCC is looking for reasons to sever the partnerships and therefore documentation of struggles/failures with the plan will be punished. So another responsibility of mine is to encourage them. My feeling is that we look at things realistically and, as long as they are deliberately trying to make their funds function better, we will continue to work with them. The final step of the planning process takes place at the end of November. We sit down and write an “end of project report.” Reading this terminology also frightens many of the partners and they need reassurance that even though the “project” is ending, the “partnership” will continue.

During my visits, the partners and I travel around to the different loan fund recipients. I take pictures and talk to the people to try to document what is going on. This has been a great experience for me, even though I feel like kind of a tag-along. It is so interesting to see how far they can stretch such a small loan (usually between $200 and $1,500) and how helpful these loans are. These people have had little to no access to capital in the past and they are so incredibly thankful for this opportunity. I am by no means an expert in the area of economic development, but I am learning a lot and meeting some great people. The job has its difficulties but, after almost half a year, I am enjoying it.

Dave

Summer English

This month has been a blur of English Intensive. Six teachers and 20 assistants from the U.S., Australia, Canada and the U.K. came to DCU and have been teaching English all month for six hours a day during the week, plus evenings twice a week. On weekends, we've toured Donetsk, taken them to church and on trips to a monastery and the sea. My job has been to coordinate the teachers and assistants time here, from the meals they eat to the activities they do in class to the places they go on the weekend. It's been fun, but also quite tiring. I've been living this program every day, and now we are in our final week. On Sunday, everyone leaves and the DCU will be quiet again. It's been a good Summer English Intensive.

Laura

Camping

This past week I went to the Sea of Azov and helped lead a camp for the older kids from “Our Home” children’s home. It was great to be able to interact with them for a more significant amount of time than the typical 2-hour block twice a week.

Twelve kids and four adults went to the camp, where we slept in tents and cooked our food over the fire. Our campsite was located about 500 yards from the sea, so we spent a lot of time there. We swam a lot and played a lot of soccer, ultimate Frisbee, and Rook. We also had a lot of quality hangout time on the beach and around the campfire. It was a really good time.

We were advised to always keep a close watch on the kids because they may try to sneak away periodically for a smoke break (which is VERY forbidden in the Baptist community here) and I was surprised how few times this seemed to happen. I won’t go so far as to say that none of the kids were able to sneak away for this, but I was very impressed. The kids at “Our Home” (also called Good Shepherd) are a bunch of really great kids.

Even though Our Home isn’t formally written into my job description, I find myself wanting to spend more and more time there, and maybe wishing it were my full-time “job.” I remember how impressionable I was in my teenage years and am so thankful that I had great role models to look up to. It is my hope that by spending my time with these kids, and especially the boys, I am able to be a role model for them to look up to. The nationals who work there are doing a great job and I am so glad that I have found a place where I can plug in a bit and really believe in what is happening there.

Dave

Coalition politics

The other day Dave went to buy train tickets for a quick trip to Kiev, and found that train tickets had almost doubled in price. A one-way ticket used to cost $12.50, now it costs $21.50. We went to our Russian lesson directly after buying the tickets, and broke the news to Marina, which provoked an outburst of political frustration. She said she heard the minister of transport say in an interview that Ukraine’s tickets are the cheapest in Europe, so that justifies the price hike. That may be true, but Ukraine’s salaries are also probably the lowest in Europe. She went on to vent about the political “circus” currently taking place in the government. March 26 was parliamentary elections. Three parties got significant chunks of votes, so they have to form coalitions. That was supposed to take a month, but at that point they were still fighting about who will align with who. Meanwhile, not much got done in the government. Marina says it’s because most of the politicians are really businesspeople who got into politics simply to gain some influence in order to increase their profits. So no one could agree, because everyone is out for himself. Since then, however, we’ve learned that there has been a coalition formed with the West-leaning parties, including the current president’s “orange” party. Maybe now some progress can be made.

By the way, we’ve since learned that the government has been meaning to increase train ticket prices for a long time – prices haven’t gone up in six years – and has just now gotten around to it. One reason given was the March elections. Last year the Ukrainian railroad company lost nearly $500 million dollars, because they were subsidizing the cost of train transport. Tickets are expected to increase another 30 percent next year.

Laura