The Day the Gate Creaked Open

 |  July 29, 2020

In Vinitsa, Ukraine, poverty isn’t hard to find. In fact, here as in other places where The Fellowship serves, poverty is a painful reality out in the open for far too many.

When we arrived at Alexandra’s house, poverty is all we saw.

And for this sweet Jewish seven year old, poverty is all she has ever known.

Behind a rusted gate sits the falling-down shack Alexandra calls home. The gate never squeaked, because no one ever came to visit.

Seven years of near starvation left Alexandra malnourished and anemic. Unlike other seven year olds, she had no energy to run and play. And unlike other children, Alexandra had no friends, and no hope. This little girl had nothing but loneliness.

But then one day Alexandra heard the rusty gate creak open. Someone had come to visit!

A Fellowship volunteer stood at the door of the family’s shack with a smile and a large box of food. Delicious, nourishing food.

Alexandra and her siblings enjoyed the snack the Fellowship volunteer gave them, while their mother broke down in tears of heart-wrenching anguish. Alexandra’s health threatened the poor girl’s very life, her mother cried. But the family had no money or resources to treat Alexandra. They had nothing. “We are all alone, we have no one to help us,” Alexandra’s mother cried.

But now Alexandra and her family are not alone. They have Fellowship friends around the world whose love and care has provided hope for the first time. They now receive food boxes and warm clothing. The family has moved to a boarding house, where Alexandra’s mother works as a cook. The children now attend Jewish schools.

And Alexandra, thanks to the medical care she now receives, is healthier than she has ever been. “Your kindness has saved our lives and given us a second chance,” her mother says, her hopelessness as distant a memory as that gate creaking open.

With The Fellowship, YOU can provide kindness and a second chance to Jewish children like Alexandra.