Unfortunately, retirement for Ukrainian pensioners is not a period in life where they can drink Prosecco with friends or travel the world carefree, as often depicted in Hollywood films. Rather, retirement comes with a considerable list of new problems, including low social benefits, expensive medical care, and a lack of interesting leisure activities. However, in Ukraine, there are several organizations that help the elderly not to feel lonely. Additionally, they provide food assistance and occasionally organize interesting leisure activities. In this article, we will talk about the “Starenki” fund and reveal the secrets of how retirement can become brighter if there are caring people nearby. We spoke with Varvara Tertychna, co-founder and director of the charity fund.
How the foundation was established
The 2014 year for Ukraine was marked by the Revolution of Dignity and the clear course to European values. At the same time, these historical events were accompanied by challenging economic times. According to the founders of the foundation, seniors started to appear more frequently on the streets of Kyiv, in underground passages and on sidewalks, trying to sell their valuable possessions acquired over a lifetime to be able to feed themselves and pay for utilities. For many of us, these things do not carry much value: a decorative vase, a book, a vintage blouse, or earrings. However, for the seniors these things are their lives: the blouse given by a loved one, the book bought in youth – and they did not sell them willingly.
“Most often it is done by the elderly who cannot survive on their pension, but they are ashamed to ask for money or help. Also, quite often, there were old people in supermarkets or pharmacies who counted pennies, obviously deciding whether to buy butter or milk because they could only afford one. It is impossible to watch this without tears. Some of these elderly people were always around, but the Revolution of Dignity and all these events changed our perspective and sharpened young people’s sensitivity towards the elderly,” says Varvara Tertychna.
It was during this period that one of the future co-founders of the foundation, Iryna Baranenko, began actively seeking like-minded people to help the elderly. For a while, Iryna thought about joining an existing organization, but she could not find one. Then the girl decided to announce her request herself – she published a post on social media, stating her intention to find those who would participate in helping elderly people.
To Irina’s surprise, the publication went viral. As a result, people came forward to work on a common idea. From 2015 to 2017, the newly formed project helped elderly people in Kyiv. The “Starenki” grew and developed, and a team of five women was later formed: Nadia Demidova, Yulia Fituni, Varvara Tertichna, Anna Vereshchak, and Irina Baranenko, who founded a charity fund in February 2017. Currently, it provides assistance to elderly people in 18 communities and large cities, including Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Ternopil, Zaporizhia, and Poltava.
Behind the scenes of “Starenki” – how the foundation works
It’s no secret that funding for charitable foundations and independent organizations has always been a problem. “Starenki” has no sponsors, but anyone who is willing can become one. The foundation is financed through donations: concerned people transfer funds to the organization’s account, and then the necessary products are purchased for the elderly. Organization workers say that even small donations help. For example, waffles, which are a favorite treat for many elderlies, cost only 10 hryvnias, and a donation of 50 hryvnias from 9 people will provide one elderly person with 8 kilograms of high-quality food.
However, Varvara Tertychna emphasizes that financing the product kits did not become their main difficulty. Instead, difficulties arose in legal and organizational aspects. In particular, at first, it was decided to create two accounts: one for administrative expenses and the other for the purchase of product aid. Later, this created some inconvenience as people preferred to transfer funds to the second account (product aid), while donations for administrative expenses were lacking, the CEO recalls.
“It was difficult to organize a comprehensive system of assistance to the elderly from scratch: a mechanism for how this would happen. The safety of seniors was also important to us – for this, we wrote rules and volunteer agreements. In particular, we do not collect personal data of percipients, and our volunteers never bring assistance to the elderly without the presence of social workers,” says Varvara.
“We were activists – ordinary people without experience in charity, who have their main job, life, families, and careers. We took the signatures under the statute of the newly created charity organization very seriously and felt that we were taking on a great responsibility. But at first, there were countless unanswered questions: do we only need an accountant, or other employees too? Where do we get the money for their salaries? Where do we even “register” the fund if we do not plan to have an office because it is an unnecessary expense? Will we receive any questions from the tax authorities? But we, five young women, almost without hesitation, did this – signed the statute. And so it started. Because we had like-minded people and an understanding that our work is very necessary for lonely and unprotected seniors, about whom, perhaps, no one except us will take care of,” continues the woman
Currently, the foundation has 5 permanent employees, and the services of two specialists are provided for business organization. In addition, there are 4 volunteers who carry out certain processes on a daily basis, and another 5-7 volunteers, including the co-founders of “Starenki”, who regularly participate in projects of the foundation
“Also, we have about 20 volunteers who regularly accompany us on our deliveries – together with social workers, they deliver packaged food to elderlies. The rest of the delivery volunteers are variable – there have already been around 1,000 people during this time,” emphasizes the co-founder.
Tea time for elderlies
Residential neighborhoods in Ukraine would be incomplete without a group of grannies sitting on a bench. However, joking aside, such leisure time is unfortunately a sign of the isolation and loneliness of elderly people. They don’t have the opportunity to go dancing, sign up for yoga, or go to the theatre. Often, the reason for this is the low pension that seniors spend on food and medicine. In addition, at present, there is no developed idea of interesting leisure for people of age in Ukraine, so the bench serves instead of the theatre, dancing, and much more.
Varvara shares that together with her team, they generated the idea of a tea party for the elderly as an easy way to organize leisure activities. In addition, such an event provides an opportunity to meet new people, and perhaps even fall in love or find a good friend.
“Not only do low pensions make life difficult for the elderly, but there is also another invisible enemy that spoils old age for many – loneliness and social isolation. As one of our recipients of age in Dnipro said, ‘We will die from loneliness rather than anything else.’ Loneliness is a constant problem for older people and was relevant even before the pandemic. We thought, what can we do to not only help the elderly with products but also give them emotions? And also to please them with communication, both among themselves and with young people. Because usually young volunteers come to such events and provide some entertainment, such as music, reading poetry, conducting bingo with gifts, or some master classes. Now elderlies themselves ask to hold as many such events as possible. We always hold tea parties on the premises of the state social service,” the foundation representatives say.
Typically, recipients of the organization are people aged 65 and older who are lonely and do not receive high social benefits, so they cannot fully fill their needs. The tea parties invite the elderly who are in better health, can move independently, and can participate in the events. Usually, during tea parties, seniors listen to music, take part in competitions, enjoy tasty treats, and simply communicate with each other.
One of the most favorite entertainments is playing bingo, where the winner can receive a gift. By the way, everyone brings presents – it can be a beautifully packaged cup, an apron, candies, tea, or homemade pastries. Young people come to the events as volunteers, and it is the communication with the younger generation that is perhaps the greatest joy for the recipients of the foundation.
War in Ukraine and Transformations in the fund
The war in Ukraine has forced many to re-evaluate their values and priorities. We asked Varvara how their work has changed since the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion.
“The main thing that has changed is that we have started to help the elderly at an even greater pace and volume. Before the war, we had a plan with our partner Caritas-Ukraine to expand our joint assistance to the elderly in 10 new cities this spring. And now we are close to fulfilling it. Of course, we have added elderly people who have become displaced due to the loss of housing or the fighting in their region to our target audience. In the first months of the full-scale invasion, we also tried to support the State Social Service units we work with using all available resources. It was very difficult for them, as many social workers had also been evacuated. At a certain point, members of our team joined the Ukrainian Volunteer Service and are developing a direction for helping elderly people who may not have been lonely before but have become so due to the war and are now in need. This is a very cool project, and we are happy that our many years of expertise in providing targeted product assistance to seniors have been very useful,” Varvara shares her memories.
The CEO notes that there have been certain changes in the foundation team, as a considerable number of volunteers had to relocate in search of a safe place, after which they provided assistance in a new location or coordinated assistance to the elderly remotely. At the same time, such processes brought the team closer together, although it was not without stress and burnout, admits Varvara. That is why the team is constantly looking for volunteers. In a short period of time, the number of beneficiaries has grown from 2.5 to 11 thousand. The war has forced the foundation to work harder and make superhuman efforts, says the co-founder.
About plans for the future
In the conditions of war, it’s difficult to plan for the future, but such goals create support in difficult times and help to move forward more confidently. Varvara also shared the team’s plans for the near future.
“Our future definitely involves expansion: of the volunteer team, the amount of aid, the number of cities and communities where we provide assistance, in new projects and partnerships, additional ways to help the elderly. The war forced us to look at some ideas differently that we didn’t implement before. In this context, all the difficulties look different, now there is a different measure of things. I think now there is a greater chance that we will take on new directions to help the elderly.
It’s obvious that the situation of elderly people in Ukraine will not improve in the near future, but may also significantly worsen. Therefore, the charity fund needs to grow and expand its help. Currently, we are working on contacts with foreign donors and collaborations with organizations of a similar profile. We are rethinking our mission to make the old age of Ukrainians happier – and what our help should be now, given the current circumstances. To do this, we will conduct a large-scale sociological study: a detailed survey of our elderly recipients about their current needs, social workers, and senior refugees – this is how our conversation with the head of the “Starenki” fund ended.”