Three primary programs, two community partnerships, one Mennonite Family Centre

The Mennonite Family Centre has evolved over more than two decades into three primary programs in Zaporizhzhya — Home Care, Respite Care, and the Day Program — and two community partnerships for children with special needs. Most clients struggle with poverty; all services are provided at no charge.

— At a glance

29: local workforce
~160: home care clients yearly
2002: work began
$0: charged to clients

— In Ukraine

The leadership team at the Mennonite Family Centre

The Mennonite Family Centre is a local Ukrainian Charity, with a five member Board including 3 members from Winnipeg, and two local members. A local Audit Committee provides independent oversight on all financial funds spent. All employees in Ukraine are local, and are hired by the local Management team, in consultation with the Winnipeg Mennonite Benevolent Society Project Director. The Mennonite Family Centre acts as an Agent for the Mennonite Benevolent Society in Winnipeg.

Boris Letkeman
Director of the Mennonite Family Centre
Sergey Butyrin
Assistant Director
Nadia Nikatinna
Program Coordinator
Tanya Tymoshenko
Assistant Program Director

Primary program

Active

Home Care

Home Care is the largest of the Mennonite Family Centre's three primary programs — approximately 160 clients across Zaporizhzhya every year. Trained caregivers travel between apartments to provide comfort care, wound dressing, food preparation, house cleaning, personal hygiene, and mobility support. The caregiver also helps with funeral arrangements.

Most clients are widows — women affected by displacement, hardship, and the long loss of family. Many turned to their faith to sustain them. Our care providers are themselves women of faith, drawn from Baptist, Pentecostal, Mennonite, and Orthodox congregations.

~160: Clients annually
$0: No charge to clients
4: Caregiver denominations

$3,000funds one week of the home care program

Primary program

Active · Now long-term care

Respite Care

Six beds inside the Mennonite Family Centre, run by the local Pentecostal congregation with the Centre's support. MFC provides the space, utilities, maintenance, and assistance with salary costs; the congregation handles operating costs and personnel. The two work together — a quiet ecumenical partnership held for many years.

Some clients come for true respite: a stretch of recovery after illness, often a month or two, then home again. For many it becomes 24-hour care, because there is nowhere else to go. The work is comfort care: nutritious food, warmth, a good bed, social interaction with others, and a care provider on hand.

6: Beds at the Centre
1: Pentecostal partner congregation
$0: Charged for stay

$1,000our contribution to cover Mennonite Family Centre expenses for one month

Day Program — singing from the hymn book

Primary program

Suspended since 2022

Day Program

The Day Program is for people who can come to the Centre one day a week. Most seniors use only public transportation, but for many that is too difficult — so the Centre's own van picks up to eight people every morning and takes them home in the afternoon. The day starts with singing, and then we have lunch.

Suspended at the onset of the war

When the invasion began, the vans stopped running and the doors of the Centre closed to the Day Program.

The hours that follow are a mix of singing, Bible study, conversation, a hot meal at noon, and time spent washing hair or having a bath. Many clients take part of lunch home for a second meal. For many, this one day is the only “church” they will attend all week — and the only social outlet that lets them talk and visit with others in similar situations.

≤8: Picked up each day
8:30 → 3:30: A day at the Centre
40: Total participants per week

$85covers one participant for one week at the Day Program

Community partnership

Supported partner program

Prometheus

Prometheus is a learning centre for children with special needs — children most often not accepted in public schools and not accepted in wider society. It began in 2011 as a Parent Association that grew out of the Florence Centre's work, and now runs as a non-governmental agency in a former public school previously closed for lack of students. Most of the costs are paid by parents of the enrolled children, with other costs covered by various grants from charitable organizations or individuals.

The aim of the school is to prepare children with special needs with life skills. For those children able to attend classes, the aim is to prepare them to enter and study in a regular public school. Many children are now qualified for public school classes; teachers are provided by the public school system, and MFC provides funds for transportation costs. Through patient work by professional staff and dedicated volunteers — some of them parents — many children who arrive non-verbal begin to interact with others.

270: Students
2011: Year founded
NGO: Run by Parent Council

$1,500our monthly financial contribution to Prometheus

Community partnership

Supported partner program

Florence Centre

The Florence Centre came into being in 2005 through the initiative of Otto and Florence Driedger, professors of Social Services and Restorative Justice at the University of Regina — working with Professors of Social Work at the National University of Zaporizhzhya. It is a non-governmental agency and a significant presence in Ukrainian social services.

Its Kangaroo Program is a small day-care for children with special needs, run by a few professional staff and many volunteers — most of them social work students who come for their practicum and stay on. A local Mennonite congregation gifted the building that houses the Kangaroo Program.

2005: Year founded
NGO: Non-governmental agency
Kangaroo: Day-care program

$500covers one month contribution for the Kangaroo Program

The restored Mennonite church at Katusovka, formerly Petershagen

Historical outreach

Inaccessible since 2022

Katusovka Senior's Care

In Katusovka — the Mennonite village formerly called Petershagen — a Mennonite church building was restored from many years of use as a barn and storage. A new congregation was established in 2000. An outreach visitation program for seniors followed, then the recognition that many seniors had no adequate care anywhere nearby.

The Pastor's apartment within the church building was eventually converted into a small care facility. Nine widows lived there. Care was provided by congregation members and young people recruited locally, with leadership from a volunteer worker from Germany. MFC contributed financial support to offset food and operating costs.

Program status

This is a program no longer possible since this region was occupied by Russian forces in 2022. The facility was confiscated by incoming Russian troops, and all contact was lost. The building remains under Russian control, and its present condition is unknown.

9: Widows in residence
2000: Congregation re-established
Petershagen: Former village name