Home for Assisted Living for elderly people in Kie

Home for Assisted Living for elderly people in Kiev

By Vladimir Ivanovich MATVEYEV

While Ukraine’s healthcare and social welfare systems change and its Jewish population ages rapidly, some synagogues provide nursing services to their communities. Modern Ukraine can't provide good care for lonely elderly people meanwhile those lonely elderly who need care and nursing constitutes a large part of the total population.
Kiev Jewish community provides care to elderly through different ways including new Kiev Jewish Home for Assisted Living for elderly people.
Eyevgenia Holodenko, 66, and Isaak Terebezhnik, 81, Jewish couple, are residents of the Weinberg Kiev Jewish Home of Assisted Living for elderly. Both of them are Holocaust survivors. During WWII Isaak fought against Nazi and Yevgenia survived in Ukraine and Russia. After WWII Yevgenia worked as a doctor in different Ukrainian hospitals and medical institutions and Isaak was a shoemaker.
Today both of them are invalids who live without relatives and need physical and spiritual support.
Eyevgenia and her husband say they are delighted with cozy modern flat which they got. "This is a paradise with high-class services to compare with our previous flat. We have here two good rooms and modern kitchen with fitted furniture, cooker hood and the best stove in my life," – said Yevgenia Cholodenko, as a resident of the modern two-rooms flat, with a charming smile upon her face echoing the pride that one could see on the faces of those members of the 25,000-strong Jewish community that gathered on Tu-bi-Shvat for the Jewish Home in Kiev.
The home was built for Holocaust survivors.

The 6,500-square-meters house with six floors is providing a combination of shelter and support services for elderly Jews. It includes 33 flats for residents, a social hall for meetings and holiday celebrations; dining room, laundry and dry-cleaner. Some of the clients are in need of around the clock care while others are unable to live alone but are not in need of full-time nursing care. There are also 32 apartments reserved for nursing care.

The Day center provides healthy kosher food, medical center services, recreational activities and assistance with personal care.

While most of the elderly in Ukraine today use old and bad gas-stoves, laundry washes, furniture, TV sets, refrigerators etc, the home's apartments have very good individual modern design and kitchens with the best modern equipment.

Living there is free for residents. At the same time the residents have to give up their apartments to the confederation in exchange for the apartment in the home. According to some Jewish activists that is why some elderly who get social care at their home apartments are not in a harry to move.

"Today our inhabitants live in eleven apartments. They have full board lodging with the Confederation because they granted their own flats to the Home. All services are free of charge, residents pay only for telephone conversations," said Viktor Popovich, executive director of the Home. "We try to warm our residents and to prolong their lives."

The residents learn Jewish traditions and languages. The multifunctional hall is used as synagogue. "Our residents learn Jewish traditions, Tora and Hebrew. They have three-time kosher food," – Popovich said.

“I like that a lot here is focuses on what are Jewish values and how we can apply them in our daily lives,” said Isaak. Yevgenia echoed him: "We learn Jewish traditions and celebrate Shabbat in our prayer hall."
The idea of the Jewish Home is a brainchild of rabbi Yakov Dov Bleich, Chief rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine, who several years ago first saw the need for a house. But Bleich said credit should be divided between him and Anatoliy Karminsky, official of the Kiev City office and one of the leaders of Jewish City Community.
Actually the project is a result of cooperation of rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich with mayor of Kiev Aleksandr Omelchenko who transferred a few years ago an unfinished building to the Confederation on favorable terms. The Home was officially opened in the fall of 2003 but according to its director it took about two more years to finish balancing and commissions and to furnish it with good modern furniture and equipment.
Vladimir Pinchuk, one of the leaders of the Jewish Confederation in Ukraine and manager of the project during 2000-2005 told that it took five years to build the house using modern technologies, design and to supply it with good equipment and furniture. "Most of the seniors who benefit from the Home are impoverished Holocaust survivors for whom our Home offers an unknown standard of care. We are happy that we are able to make their lives a little bit easier," said Vladimir.
The House is the property of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine and Evrodom Plus, a management company set up especially for this purpose, provides the management. "Taking into account the legislation of Ukraine and current situation in the country this Home is just fantastic," said Vilen Remenik, director of the firm.

The project was sponsored by Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, Agudath Israel of America community Services, the United States department of agriculture, the Harry and Jenette Weinberg Foundation, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the French Foundation ''Memorial Shoa' as well as local sponsors.
As a result of the long time between the opening to implementation Weinberg Foundation who sponsored many projects in the FSU requested and received a temporary refund of the grant. The money should be returned now as a result of implementation of the project.
This is not only project sponsored by Weinberg's Foundation whose implementation was held up after the official opening. Recently a similar situation occurred at the JDC organized JCC in St.-Petersburg and it will be interesting to see how the situation develops with the JCC in St.-Petersburg and what actions the Weinberg Foundation and other donors will take.
Part of the delay in opening the Home can be attributed the fact that not all of the International Jewish organizations active in welfare supported the project. In spite of all, Rabbi Bleich said that he is open to "cooperation with all local and International Jewish organizations that can help to ease the situation for assisted living in Kiev".
People say this is home where the hearts are inspirited. "The most precious in our world is charm of relations and communication. This building is no just a building but Home. Very important that this house will prolong your (residents) and our lives,' said Anatoly Karminsky, Honored builder of Ukraine, member of the Board of the Kiev City Jewish community.