Pansy Group Raises Thousands To Help Girls In Ukraine

A group from Pansy has raised thousands of dollars this year for a live-in center in Ukraine.

Olga Bezditny of Pansy was the first to be involved with the Canadian organization called Nashi, five years ago when she befriended the director Savelia Curniski. Bezditny says she’s always had a passion for helping children. “I’m really quite involved with Nashi and Nashi means our children.” She adds “this is a Canadian organization that was founded in Saskatoon and they founded the Maple Leaf Center in Stoyaniw, Ukraine.”

Bezditny says this Center differs from orphanages. “At the age of 14 the girls who live in the Orphanages are released and they fend for themselves.” She adds “usually they end up living on the street where they are easy targets for human traffickers and this is a big problem in Ukraine.” The Maple Leaf Center provides a safe home for the girls all the way through post secondary education.

After seeing the effort and hard work that was being done in Saskatoon by Nashi, Bezditny wanted to contribute to the organization through fundraising in the southeast. The first fundraiser Bezditny put on was a perogy supper five years ago, raising $5,000. The proceeds went towards the entire kitchen renovation including a commercial fridge and two commercial stoves.

This spring Bezditny and volunteers put on an afternoon dance at the Pansy Hall where they raised $9,000. Bezditny was surprised by this outcome. “It was way above what we thought we would fundraise and I know it is very much appreciated.” She adds people were very generous with their donations.

Currently, 14 girls live at the center ranging in age from 7-14 years old. Bezditny recently came back from visiting the center which is located in the village Stoyaniw, just north of Lviv. “The girls are tenderly cared, loved and educated by the director Maria and she has a bunch of volunteers that help her with cooking, washing, and daily chores that need to be done. The girls help them too and go to a village school and are totally progressing.”

The Center was originally an abandoned two-story building and was transformed by Nashi into a three-story living complex. All fundraising proceeds from the southeast will go to the upkeep on the building. Plans in the future involve solar panels for the roof as well as a van for transportation. They also plan to get the girls involved in a honey bee program where they will help with the process of making and selling honey. 

Bezditny recently came back from visiting the Center and is very pleased to see the progress and how well the girls are doing. She says she couldn’t be more proud to be a part of an organization like Nashi.

This was Bezditny’s second time visiting the Center.