Editor’s Note: This article is a part of the “Journalism of Tolerance” project by the Kyiv Post and its affiliated non-profit organization, the Media Development Foundation. The project covers challenges faced by sexual, ethnic and other minorities in Ukraine, as well as people with physical disabilities and those living in poverty. This project is made possible by the support of the American people through the U. S. Agency for International Development and Internews. Content is independent of the donors.
LVIV, Ukraine — Olga Karyeva’s story sounds like the plot of a drama movie.
But her story is real. Karyeva, a 47-year-old accountant, recalls her past reluctantly and with sadness. First, her apartment was illegally seized, then she was convicted and spent five years in a prison for an illegal real estate deal. She claims she was set up.
After her release, she was jobless and homeless.
But Walnut House saved her and helped her start a new life. Karyeva found a place to live and job she loves and now shares her story to inspire others.
Last shelter
Walnut House is in Lviv, some 540 kilometers west of Kyiv. It provided women with a place to live, as well as psychological help and support. It later set up its own business to cover its expenses, opening a bakery and a catering service.
However, since November 2016, only the business part of the organization has been operating: work is ongoing to renovate the house that will serve as the new women’s shelter. After it opens, Karyeva plans to work there as an administrator.
Karyeva was one of 10–14 clients who regularly lived in the previous shelter because they had lost their homes. After Karyeva was released from prison in November 2014, she lived for a while with her grandmother in a village. Then she found an advertisement about Walnut House, called them and went to live there.
“For me, it wasn’t just a rescue, it was a lucky ticket,” Karyeva said. The center offered her more than shelter. In July 2015, she got hired as an accountant for Walnut House.
Care center
Yuriy Lopatynskyy came up with the idea of a women’s refuge after he studied in Germany and researched the situation with homeless people in Lviv. Women are the most vulnerable, he says.
“A woman grasps the last chance — to stay somewhere overnight, to rely on someone,” Lopatynsky says. Especially when there is a child, she sacrifices everything — gives up her body in order to simply save the child and not end up on the streets.”
So Lopatynskyy decided to set up a homeless shelter.
The shelter opened in 2010. It was a rented house, owned by a monastery, where women could live for free until they could find a job and afford their own place. Later, the inhabitants had to pay utility expenses. At first, the shelter avoided publicity because some women were escaping domestic violence. At one point, Lopatynskyy had to hire a security guard.
There are almost 1,500 homeless people registered in Lviv; 652 of whom were women. Svitlana Nekleva, a social worker at the registration center, said women end up on the streets mainly because of alcohol addiction and domestic violence.
“It happens that a woman is beaten by a man, and she stops tolerating it and runs away from home,” Nekleva said. However, the center doesn’t take mothers with children. Kids are sent to an orphanage.
Doing social business
Lacking steady financing, Lopatynskyy needed a business plan. He liked baking and taught his clients about healthy eating, so he decided to open a small bakery.
So Walnut House — named so because the recipes all included walnuts, and like a walnut, it provides a solid shelter for what is inside, — opened its first bakery in a rented 20-square-meter space, providing jobs for several women from the shelter. They decided to bake cookies, such as Italian cantuccini almond biscuits, which could be served with tea or coffee in Lviv cafes.
“Neither I nor my colleagues had any experience of doing business, but we baked cantuccini at home in the oven. But how could we get them to the clients, and sell them?”
Lopatynskyy’s team learned to bake better, present their food attractively and add more products. Later they rented a larger space, opened a bakery and canteen, and also started to deliver lunches. Walnut House now provides catering for weddings, official ceremonies, parties and other events.
The Western NIS Enterprise Fund provided its first social loan to Walnut House, helping to build a canteen.
“We learned how to make money and it’s brought really great results. We’ve reached the point that we’re not depending on grant money,” he said.
Walnut House also opened a café on the first floor of Lviv’s newly built Sheptytsky Center in September. The center serves as a library and a work and study area for the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Since February, the enterprise has also provided catering for students of the university on one of its campuses.
New care center
Walnut House was itself made homeless — the premises it occupied was sold by its owner to a hotel business. Another building was found — a 149-square-meter house on Lychakivska Street — but it needed renovation. After negotiations with the Lviv City Council, the building was leased to Walnut House for 15 years.
Through various campaigns, such as supported by Vice Prime Minister Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, the organization collected almost Hr 370,000. Another Hr 1 million will be granted by charity foundation Pomogator. It still needs about $90,000 to repair the one-floor building with basement and attic.
Once opened, the shelter will again start helping homeless women. Lopatynskyy says 90 percent of the women coming through Walnut House are able to get married or find a job and get their own place.
“We give them a boost, and later they manage by themselves,” he said.
