The Mennonite Centre has a history of working
closely with local or municipal governments in Ukraine. An investment by us at that level can benefit
many people now living in the villages once occupied by our ancestors. We have made it a practice to get to know the
local authorities. This week we had the opportunity to dig a bit deeper and met
with four mayors.
Chris Goertzen, one of our board members, was
visiting along with 5 members of his extended family. Chris is the former mayor of Steinbach and
under his leadership, Steinbach had signed a twinning agreement with the city
of Zaporozhe. The original Mennonite
settlement of Chortitza in Ukraine is now part of Zaporozhe. This gives both cities a common Mennonite heritage. The City of Zaporozhe is about 30 times larger
than Steinbach and ironically, the twinning arrangement appears to be more
important to Zaporozhe than it is to Steinbach.
Chris’s presence was a great opportunity for the Mennonite Centre to get
to know some mayors just a little bit better.
I had the opportunity to accompany Chris to a
meeting with Valerii Edeliev, the deputy mayor of Zaporozhe. Chris was here in an informal capacity as he
is no longer the mayor. There was a very
friendly exchange of gifts, along with the obligatory handshake and photo
op. The talk centered around the famous
700-year-old oak tree growing in Chortitza which is remembered so fondly by
many Mennonites. An acorn from the tree
in Chortitza was brought to Canada many years ago and is now growing at the
Mennonite Heritage Museum in Steinbach.
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| Chris Goertzen and Deputy Mayor of Zaporozhe |
On Thursday, Chris and his family toured their
ancestral village of Waldheim located in the Molotoschna settlement. They were warmly greeted by the local mayor
and had the opportunity of having a picnic lunch on their ancestral land. The picnic, arranged by my wife Mary and
Oksana our manager, consisted of fleisch perischkie (meat buns), fresh
vegetables, and arbuse (watermelon). The
family enjoyed the local foods and reminisced about their ancestors.
Chris spent 2 nights at the Mennonite
Centre. On Friday morning we visited the
local mayor of Molochansk (Halbstadt).
He was obviously pleased to have a mayor from a Canadian city in his
office. I learned a lot about the issues
in Molochansk. The biggest issue for the
mayor is that 80% of his budget goes to support 2 day-care facilities in
town. He only has the equivalent of
$50,000 Cdn to pay for all other staff salaries as well as roads and general
maintenance for an area with over 5000 people.
Now I know why the roads are in such disrepair. There are so many exclusions to the paying of
property tax, that only four properties in Molochansk are liable for this tax. The property
tax ironically is not paid by the homeowner, but rather by the employer of the homeowner.
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| Chris Goertzen and Mayor of Halbstadt |
On Friday afternoon we drove to
Svetlodolinskoya (Lichtenau) to meet another mayor. We had another lengthy and interesting
discussion. The issues were a bit
different than Molochansk. Here a higher
level of government is responsible for daycare and the mayor had a budget of
$75,000 Cdn for a population of 2000.
However, there are other problems.
The higher level of government had just run out of funds to pay the local
daycare workers and there was pressure on the mayor to step in and cover these
costs. That is unlikely to happen. The most likely resolution will be for the daycare
workers to continue working at no pay in the hope that their salaries will again
be paid at some time in the future. This
has obviously happened before. When I
asked for a photo op, the mayor responded by giving Chris a hug rather than the
formal handshake in the photo. He had
enjoyed the conversation. For me this was a special event. My great-grandfather had been the mayor of Lichtenau in the 1870's and he built the house that is now used as the mayor's office.
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| Mayor of Lichtenau, Chris Goertzen and my great-grandfather's house in background |
There is an initiative in Ukraine to
amalgamate local authorities into larger areas.
These are given a larger budget but also take on added responsibility
for their areas. On Saturday we met with
Denys Korotenko, the mayor of one of these new amalgamated communities called Shiroke. He lives in the northern area of the
Chortitza settlement including the Mennonite village of Neuendorf. While the other mayors are resisting the
drive to amalgamate, Denys has embraced it. He has made some progressive moves
including reducing redundant staff and utilizing the savings to fund more urgent
programs. For example, he has replaced
all night watchmen in the schools with automated remote monitoring. It has taken a toll on Denys, but he is young
and determined to make his area a place that people want to move to. The Mennonite Centre will continue to support
him.
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| Mayor of Shiroke and Chris Goertzen |
There were some stresses this week. On Wednesday I was driving our vehicle toward
our apartment. A motorcycle came out of
a side street without stopping and hit the van in the front fender. By the time I stopped and ran around the
vehicle, the driver was lying on the road, holding his knee and groaning in
pain. Suddenly the pain seemed to stop, he
jumped up, picked up his motorcycle and drove off. He knew he was at fault and
thought it best to leave the scene as quickly as possible. I was in shock and did not even get the plate
number. Our vehicle had a slight dent in
the fender and the front bumper was totally dislodged. An inebriated pedestrian stopped to offer
some kind advice in Russian. Of course
we called Oksana and she came to console us and deal with the mess. A passing trucker helped her put the bumper
back on temporarily. In the morning she
took the vehicle to a local garage where an accommodating mechanic gave her priority
service and spent an hour re-attaching the bumper. He refused to accept any payment, saying he
was doing it for Canada. Our country is viewed very favourably in Ukraine.
Friday morning we were having breakfast in our
apartment with Chris Goertzen. There was
loud pounding on our door and Mary went to answer. An aggressive lady came rushing in and
pointed at our washroom. A pipe in the
washroom had burst and was flooding her apartment below. It took me a few minutes to find and activate
the shut-off valve. My clothes got soaked and the washroom floor was flooded. Chris just took off his shoes and socks and
went to work with Mary to get rid of the standing water, while I changed my
clothes. I believe they managed to limit
the damage in the apartment below us.
Mary and I are looking forward to an
uneventful week where we can focus on our work.
If you wish
to know more about the work of the Mennonite Centre, you can check out our web
site at: http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/
or follow our daily activities on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Mennonite-Centre-Ukraine-735361069838076/
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