Eastern Europe
In Eastern Europe, CNEWA focuses its activities in Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine — nations that continue their struggle to rebuild after decades of economic collapse, political instability, corruption, war and now the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deeply rooted Christian cultures, Armenia and Georgia’s small Catholic communities reach out to the most marginalized people in Eastern Europe, despite modest human and financial resources. Ukraine’s Greek Catholic churches have reinvigorated parishes and communities. CNEWA works closely with these communities of faith, focusing its activities on caring for isolated and marginalized peoples.
Girls practice English at a Caritas day care center in Tbilisi. Learn more about efforts to help children in Georgia in “A Child’s Rights Restored” from the March 2012 edition of ONE. (photo: Molly Corso) Father Galstian meets with youth of the village of Bavra. (photo: Nazik Armenakyan) Ivlita Kuchaidze, center, has survived famine, war and neglect over her 93 years in Georgia — but today lives in poverty, depending on charity to survive. Read her remarkable life story in the Spring 2016 edition of ONE. (photo: Molly Corso) A sister of the Order of St. Basil the Great plays with kindergarteners in Lviv. (photo: Ivan Chernichkin)
CNEWA Eastern European grants in 2019 included:
- $17,000 to support the formation of men at the Greek Catholic Theological Seminary in Oradea, Romania.
- $45,000 to help the Armenian Ordinariate and the Armenian Sisters in their summer camp programs for children living in remote areas of Armenia and Georgia.
- $25,000 to enable Blagovest Media, based in St. Petersburg, Russia, to purchase updated production equipment for its catechetical programming.
- $129,992 to assist Caritas Armenia feed 500 vulnerable families in 15 villages, as well as provide heating supplies for the elderly.
- $13,800 to help the Daughters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Novoiavorivsk, Ukraine, with their family ministry program, which focuses on women in crisis.
- $36,820 to fund the Caritas Georgia soup kitchen in Tbilisi, which provides hot meals to the elderly, people with special needs and vulnerable children.
- $10,031 to assist Caritas in Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, feed those displaced by fighting between Ukrainians and pro-Russian separatists.