20. Adopt-A-Bubbe/Adopt-A-Zayde is an independent
assistance program created by Dr. Judith Patkin, the Executive Director
of Action for Post-Soviet Jewry in Waltham, MA. The Dnipropetrovsk
operation supports elderly Jews in Dnipropetrovsk itself and in 15 additional
cities or large towns and numerous smaller towns in eastern, central, and
southern Ukraine. However, the total number of towns served
has declined as Jewish populations in these villages have diminished to the
point where service calls are economically prohibitive. In fact, said AAB directors Tanya and Yan
Sidelkovsky, a few distant towns are rarely visited at all; instead, AAB
transfers funds through PrivatBank to local coordinators who care for needy
people in their regions. At any given time, said the Sidelkovskys,
about 1,000 individuals are on their client list, a number that has been
reduced in recent years due to budgetary constraints. Some clients are rotated in and out of the
AAB census periodically in order to serve more people.
Elderly clients who die are replaced by
relatively younger pensioners; the younger pensioners may have greater needs
because they do not receive the government bonuses and other government
benefits (such as discounts on use of utilities) given to veterans of World War
II. The program also supports some
working-age Jews who are chronically ill or handicapped, as well as some Jewish
families with young children in which the parents are unemployed.
Yan and
Tanya Sidelkovsky manage the Adopt-a-Bubbe program in the Dnipropetrovsk
area. Yan also is the local coordinator
for the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston kehilla or sister-city
program in the city. (See page 15.)
Photo:
the writer.
Coordinators
in each population center often are retired hesed personnel, who know local
seniors and their needs. Coordinators
may be paid a small stipend, but do not receive conventional salaries.
The
major form of AAB service is the distribution of general food parcels to
a long list of needy Jews. The
organization also provides food, clothing, and medicine tailored to the
specific requirements of particular clients, such as food and medications for
diabetics. Further, it assists patients
in hospitals who usually must bring their own linens and medicines, as well as
food, for their hospitalization. AAB
provides medicines and medical supplies (such as catheters, syringes, and
surgical instruments) to several hospitals, both as general assistance and as
an incentive for hospitals to admit and treat AAB clients who require
hospitalization.
Due
to runaway inflation, most pensions now are worth only about $40
monthly, enough to pay for utilities, but leaving very little for food and
medicine. AAB receives medications from
international supporters, which it distributes to clients according to
recommendations of local physicians.
A
signature social program of Adopt-a-Bubbe is the warm home day
centers, which are held in the apartments of participants. Adopt-a-Bubbe currently operates two warm
homes in Dnipropetrovsk (one on each side of the Dnipr River) and 10 others in
its broader service region. Ten to 12
seniors attend each warm home every month, with some people rotating in or out
each session so that more individuals are able to participate. With financial assistance from AAB, the
hostess and other participants purchase food for a full hot meal; both the
hostess and some guests prepare the dishes so that the hostess is not
overwhelmed and more people feel valued.
Sometimes a few individuals may bring wine or other treats on their
own. In addition to consuming a hot,
nutritious meal, participants celebrate birthdays and holidays, sing, dance,
participate in discussions on Judaism and Jewish history, and take part in
other activities. The opportunities for
socializing and for intellectual exercise are just as important as the hot
meal, said Mr. Sidelkovsky. Mr. Sidelkovsky acknowledged that the Joint
Distribution Committee had initiated the warm home program and then abandoned
it as a consequence of budgetary pressures, re-started it with only limited
food service, then abandoned it again.
Asked about contact with Jewish
internally displaced people from the areas now under separatist control,
the Sidelkovskys said that AAB transported some of the elderly IDP's who were
staying at Beit Baruch (see below) to special warm home seders organized
just for them on the fourth or fifth night of Pesach. It was important, they said, that these
displaced individuals have an opportunity to leave Beit Baruch and enjoy a
Pesach meal in a real home, not an institution.
Additionally, the Sidelkovskys continued, they assisted Jewish IDP's who
went to Mariupol (because the IDP's have relatives in that city). One of their principal forms of help to these
IDP's was the purchase of cell phones for them.
21. The Beit Baruch
Assisted Living Facility for elderly Jews opened in 2002, the first of only
two dedicated residences for Jewish seniors in all of the post-Soviet states. Sponsored by the Chabad Philanthropic Fund
of the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish Community (Благотворительный фонд Днепропетровского еврейского общины), Beit Baruch provides
accommodations in single or double rooms with private bathrooms, meals, medical
care, and social activities. The
building is located in a relatively quiet outlying area on the site of a former
preschool. The preschool was razed to
the ground and then replaced by a clean, modern residential facility.
Although the official capacity of Beit
Baruch is 94, American geriatric specialists recommend that the total number of
residents not exceed 75 to 80. The current census is only 42 conventional
patients, said director Mila Ruvinskaya, the low number reflecting
both Chabad community concerns about financial support of additional patients
and the need of an increasing number of residents with dementia for single
rooms. The facility maintains a small waiting
list, Ms. Ruvinskaya stated; some of these individuals will be admitted when
current patients leave Beit Baruch
or die. The waiting list, acknowledged Ms. Ruvinskaya, includes several people
with serious psychological issues. Beit
Baruch management believes that it is incapable of caring for such seniors and
avoids admitting them.
Mila
Ruvinskaya, seen here at the entrance to the facility, is respected for her
manage-ment skills and commitment to patients at Beit Baruch.
Photo:
the writer.
The
condition of current residents continues to deteriorate, Ms. Ruvinskaya
stated. More and more of them are лежающие (bedridden), and Beit Baruch now is more of a
hospice than an assisted living facility.
The average cost of maintaining someone at Beit Baruch, responded Ms.
Ruvinskaya to a question, is about $400 monthly. Only two of the 42 residents pay the full
fee, she said; in each of these cases, the fee is paid by adult children who
live in the United States. Other
patients pay a small portion of their pensions.
In addition to accommodating Jewish
elderly who require assistance with daily life tasks, Beit Baruch has become a temporary
residence for displaced Jews from Crimea and from the eastern regions of
Ukraine now controlled by separatists.
Although the numbers were far greater at the peak of the crisis, said
Ms. Ruvinskaya, 17 people remain from Donetsk and Luhansk, along with a single
mother and her three children from Crimea.
Earlier, Beit Baruch hosted two families of five people each; one of
these families has since emigrated to Israel and the other left for Odesa. Another family has been at Beit Baruch for
nine months and shows no signs of departing.
In general, continued Ms. Ruvinskaya, most of the adults who remain have
poor work skills and will find it difficult to become self-supporting
anywhere. However, she noted, several of
them are helping around Beit Baruch, washing dishes or doing comparable
work. The local Chabad community pays
the cost of maintaining these individuals at Beit Baruch.
Some of the
more mobile residents eat lunch in the dining room at Beit Baruch.
Photo:
the writer.
Beit
Baruch also hosts local Jews who are recovering from hip replacement surgery. Beit Baruch professional staff provides the
necessary therapeutic assistance and such residents benefit from cooked meals
and handicapped-accessible premises.
Four people currently are in the recuperation program, which was
developed by orthopedic specialists from the Dnipropetrovsk sister-city of
Boston.
22. The Dnipropetrovsk Jewish Medical Center
opened in February 2012 in ground floor premises at the Beit Baruch Assisted
Living Facility. Although housed in its
own wing of Beit Baruch, it is accessible from inside the residence without
going outdoors. It also has its own
separate outside entrance so that non-resident clients and staff may enter and
leave without disturbing Beit Baruch.
JMC fulfills a longtime goal of the Dnipropetrovsk Chabad leadership to
provide high-quality medical services in a manner that ensures the patient's
dignity to the Jewish population at low cost.
The clinic also is open to non-Jews and does not discriminate in the
provision of care. Small fees are paid
for all services.
In
the absence of JMC director Dr. Elena Strakh who was attending a medical
conference in Kyiv, the writer spoke with Dr. Yana Vladimirovna, a JMC
cardiologist. Dr. Vladimirovna stated that at least two physicians and one nurse are present at all times every
day. A number of specialists - she
mentioned a urologist, gynecologist, endocrinologist, neurologist, and
dermatologist - have office hours between one and three days each week. The clinic is open five days each week,
Sunday through Thursday. Between 15 and
20 people, mainly elderly, visit the clinic every day, she said; the number
really depends on the specialists who are onsite on a given day.
Reflecting
a service contract with the hesed, about 70 percent of all adult patients
are referred by the hesed, said. Dr. Vladimirovna. The remainder are from Beit Baruch itself and
from the general population. The clinic
also sees about 100 children from the Jewish day school and Beit
Tsindlicht; however, Dr. Vladimirovna stated, the JMC staff pediatricians are
actually at JMC only a few days each week and only in the hours after school.
The program also operates in several other regions of
the former Soviet states. However, this report deals only with work that is
directed from its Dnipropetrovsk office. In addition to assisting Jews,
Adopt-A-Bubbe also reaches out to elderly Righteous Gentiles, i.e., those from
families who helped Jews during the Holocaust.
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