During March 2019, 6,000 sets of various vegetables seeds were distributed by CBN-Emmanuel in over 40 front-line towns and villages in Donetsk and Lugansk regions in the framework of Orphan’s Promise’ “Something to Eat Every Day” (SEED) project.

CBN-Emmanuel has been implementing this project in war-affected eastern Ukraine for three years in a row now. In 2017 and 2018, 5,000 and 11,500 sets of seeds correspondingly were distributed among war-affected vulnerable families in partnership with “Pope for Ukraine” Initiative. This project proved to be very successful – in the previous years after the harvest the project’s beneficiaries were able to provide themselves with a full cellar of vegetables and preserves for the winter.

This year, purchase and distribution of 6,000 seed sets was funded by “Orphan’s Promise” USA. Each set contains assortment of 50 types of vegetables seeds and greens for planting for the total value of over 27,000 USD.

Galina Kucher, the head CBN-Emmanuel’s Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Department in Ukraine shared, “The project has something in common with the biblical parable about planting the seeds: we give people an assortment of seeds with the total value of about $4,5 for a set
(including packaging). This amount of seeds is enough to cover 5-6 acres of land. After 3-4 months, the cost of the harvest will be estimated between $100 to $400. It is obvious that this is a very good investment.

At the same time, our main goal is to give people the opportunity to cultivate the land, plant these seeds into the ground and then enjoy the first shoots and first fruit. It is deeply “stitched” in the Ukrainian mentality, regardless of wealth, to have “their own” vegetables and potatoes.
And in the east of Ukraine there is also a great need aggravated by war. If you could only see how happy these people are when they receive this help! They come to get the seeds and bring their gardening equipment to be able to go to their gardens and plant the seeds right away!”

The project’s beneficiaries are the most vulnerable people: large families, elderly people, families with children and people with disabilities living in war-affected towns and villages – Slavne, , Taramciuk, Zolote, Popasna, Vrubivka, Toretsk, Zhovanka, Krasnogorivka, Pesky, Druzhba, Vugledar.

Anna Chaban, CBN-Emmanuel

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