JDC Hesed in Odessa: When the Community is the Only Helping Hand

A group of three young people and a worker from the Hesed social welfare center in Odessa, South Ukraine, lead the way to a wooden shed, situated amongst the neighbors’ garages and small houses that stand parallel to the railroad. Momentarily the youngsters stop in their tracks on the dirty snow, hearing a loud whistle from a passing train.

In one of these small, dilapidated huts resides Marina, age 79. Her "home" consists of two tiny rooms and one window, with no central heating or running water. There has never been an indoor toilet; it is outside, some meters away. Before Marina began receiving assistance from the local JDC-sponsored Hesed in Odessa, the rat-infested hut had no light or heat, the coal furnace long-since broken.

Hardly mobile and suffering from myriad health problems including cardiovascular disease and cataracts, Marina is thrilled to welcome visits by Hesed homecare and case workers as well as students from the local Hillel, who for more than three years have been performing repairs in the homes of poor elderly Jews in the community. These volunteers have fixed her furnace and electric light. "I am very grateful to all of them for the help they have given me," says the jovial senior. She is also proud to say she has become good friends with the students, who visit her two to three times per month to clean the courtyard, bring coal inside the house, and cut wood for heating.

Thanks to volunteers of the JDC-sponsored Moked programs, other of Marina's housing conditions have been improved: a new entrance door, a window and window grates have been installed. She also receives coal in order to heat her home during the harsh winter months. As there are no laundry facilities in the house, Marina regularly gets her linens and clothing washed through Hesed and is taken to the local bathhouse by the center staff. "I cannot even think of how I would survive without Galya, my Hesed home care worker," says Marina. "She brings the groceries, medications, and water from the well which is several blocks up the street, gets my clothes washed, and cooks meals for me." These services help Marina, a Hesed client since 1997, to live out her life with dignity, after years of difficult circumstances that brought her to such impoverished conditions.

Born with an ear for music, Marina entered a renowned music school in Odessa. Though the outbreak of WWII prevented her from finishing her studies, she worked as a music teacher for primary and day schools in evacuation and after the war. In 1948 she married a military man, with whom she lived in the Far North from 1950 until 1961. The couple never had children. And in 1966, when Marina’s young husband passed away, she was left totally alone.

Some ten years ago, Marina even lost the room where she had been living. She agreed to move from the communal apartment, which she shared with neighbors who largely suffered from drug and alcohol addictions, entrusting her relocation to the local office in charge of housing. Abuse by the office staff of Marina's unfamiliarity with the legal issues resulted in Marina losing ownership rights to the communal apartment room. With no recourse, she found herself living in the shed, with minimal furniture and an almost-broken piano (that would later be used to heat her abode).

Today, Marina is one of some 9,000 impoverished Jewish elderly – among them lonely, disabled, and homebound – currently being helped by Gmilus Hesed in Odessa. "This help has changed my life, and I don't know where I would be without it," beams the old woman, admiring one of the volunteers from the doorway of her tin-roof hut.