In Mykolaiv, a charity fund provides daily tea, serves soup, and bakes bread for those in need. (photos)

In Mykolaiv, on Bohoyavlensky Avenue, a point of the Mavi Hilal Ukraine charity fund has been operating daily for two years now – baking bread, serving tea and coffee, and providing hot soup.

Regarding the charity fund's work in our city, correspondent Tatyana Petrovna shared information.

According to the representative of Mavi Hilal Ukraine, this point in Mykolaiv was opened on December 7, 2022. The donors of this fund include the international Turkish charity IBС and the German company Action Medeor.

This point operates every day from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM without breaks. Tatyana Petrovna noted that the point does not operate at night, but in extreme cases, they accept those who have nowhere to go, especially military personnel.

- We opened on December 7 and have been operating for two years since then. Non-stop – from morning until evening. From 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. We do not operate at night; only security is here. Sometimes military personnel come to us if they’ve been relocated or for some other reason. There are times when people arrive in the city and can't leave because they need to be at the hospital by 8:00 AM, so we let them stay overnight. Of course, there’s no place to sleep; they can only sit on chairs. The security guard makes tea and coffee at night, - Tatyana Petrovna explained.

Every day, this charity point bakes bread, which is then distributed to social services, given to Mykolaiv residents, or delivered to Kherson and the Stanislav community. Additionally, people are served hot soup twice a day.

- All day long, we serve tea, coffee, and soup twice a day – at 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM. We bake bread every day. We first try to distribute to organizations and social services, including the blind and deaf societies. Social services receive bread daily and deliver it to bedridden people at home. Those who can come here receive it personally. We also deliver bread to Kherson, and now we have added the Stanislav community in the Kherson region, where people are completely without electricity, gas – without anything, - Tatyana Petrovna shared.

The tent where the fund representatives work is heated around the clock with a stove; if there’s no electricity, they connect a generator. Tatyana Petrovna noted that on the day after the shelling that occurred on November 28, when residents of Mykolaiv region were left without electricity for almost two days, they worked from 5 AM.

- Our stove burns day and night because it would be very cold without it. When there’s no electricity, our generator works. On November 28, we worked from five in the morning. We gave the generator a 15-minute break because it cannot run continuously. And we still need to bake bread, - she recounted.

She emphasized that their point operates daily regardless of power outages. According to her, they distribute more than 800 servings of tea, coffee, 600 servings of soup, and 3,500 loaves of bread each day. Their organization also assists people whose homes have been damaged by shelling.

- We try to help people after the shelling. When a house was hit on Kosmonavtiv Street and people lost electricity and gas, we brought hot soup and distributed blankets. There were also city services and the Red Cross there. When shells hit houses on Kuznetska Street, we also delivered bread to them, - Tatyana Petrovna stated.

During their continuous work, unforeseen circumstances occasionally arise: the tea-making machine almost caught fire, the entrance door breaks because people pull it instead of pushing, and the police bring in intoxicated individuals and homeless people to warm them up. However, despite these challenges, the charity organization continues its daily efforts.