In Newsletter No. 10 we made an appeal to support the urgent operation of Igor, a civilian victim who was seriously injured in February 2021 during clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists.
Since then, Igor has been waiting at home for the possibility of an operation. But the family could not raise the money needed to pay for the operation. In the meantime Igor’s condition was getting worse.
At the end of April, we heard about his case from someone we knew. We decided to pay the costs of the operation and all the necessary treatments.
In May the operation, which had been postponed several times, could be performed. It was an operation that lasted from morning to night and where all the pieces of projectiles that Igor had received in the abdomen were removed. And his organs were put back in their place. Igor was in hospital for a month and went through a very tough post-operative period.
Today he has returned home and continues daily rehabilitation treatment in hospital. For weeks he will have to keep a strict diet but will remain disabled for the rest of his life. In a recent phone call, he thanked our association and all the donors who spontaneously made a donation to save his life.
The war in Eastern Ukraine, which has almost disappeared from our media, continues to claim victims every day. Here is an urgent case that our association “Ad Pacem” has decided to support these days, if it is possible with your help.
It is an urgent operation for young Igor, a civilian victim wounded by stray bullets on the front line. His family does not have the money to pay for the operation and his stay in hospital.
Urgent surgery
In recent weeks, shooting has increased on the frontline where the Ukrainian army and Russian-armed separatists face each other. Many families continue to live there because they cannot flee elsewhere, having any friends or family to take them in.
This is the case of 22-year-old Igor, who lives with his father (who earns his living from temporary jobs) in a village near the front line.
At the end of February, he was in his garden when he was seriously wounded by stray bullets to the abdomen and hand. A first operation was carried out to urgently and temporarily treat his abdominal wound and remove two fingers. The second and more important operation was postponed several times because of the Covid health crisis in the region. We know that his father’s financial situation does not allow him to pay for this second operation, which should take place next Wednesday, 19th of May. But it will only be done if he pays the hospital in advance and brings the medicines he has bought in advance. The surgeon advised him not to buy Russian medicines, which are cheaper but also of much lower quality and ineffective for this operation.
It was through a good acquaintance whom we have been helping for years that we were put in touch by phone with Igor’s desperate father. The operation is necessary to save the life of his son, who will have to stay in hospital for at least twenty days with special treatments. And it is also up to the father to buy all the medicines for after the operation.
According to the information we have at the moment, the expenses for Igor’s operation amount to €800, the purchase of medicines to €400, the hospitalization with special medicines to €400. It is important to know that an average worker earns at best 150 € per month in the territories occupied by the pro-Russian separatists, which is not the case for Igor’s father who has no paid job.
We appeal to your generosity to help Igor. Every donation, no matter how small, will make a difference.
You can make your donation to our bank account IBAN LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276 (BIC: CCRALULL) with the mention “Operation Igor”.
Thank you all very much! We will keep you informed about the follow-up of this urgent help in the coming weeks.
Fifteen members of the Ad Pacem association cycled together for two days on cycle paths in Luxembourg. This bike ride made people understand how much this means of expression reduces air pollution and climate change. And it brings well-being and peace to the mind, soul and body.
On the morning of April 15, they left the Glacis in Luxembourg-city by bike, taking the cycle path no. 2 which, passing by the red bridge and the Kirchberg, led them to Echternach.
The lunch break was at the bus stop in the small village of Rippeg. At the height of Consdorf there was the possibility of seeing on a landscaped square, just on the edge of the cycle path, the enormous American bomb, found in 1990, and which dated from the 2nd World War. The group arrived at the edge of Lake Echternach around 3.30 p.m.
Visit of the Gallo-Roman villa just behind.
The guide of the Museum explained very well the life of the inhabitants of this Gallo-Roman villa which was inhabited from the 1st to the 5th century of our era.
From the roof, which is also the terrace of the museum, you can get a good idea of the size and considerable dimensions of this farm and the land that surrounded it at the time. Inside the museum, the visitor can realize the importance given to the classical studies of the young people of the Gallo-Roman aristocracy as well as to the art of cooking at the time.
The site offers a good overview of the many details that the excavations have brought to light so far.
Evening dinner was taken outdoors on the terrace of the Echternach youth hostel.
Visit of the Basilica and the crypt
On Friday morning, everyone got on their bikes in the direction of Echternach where the group attended the 9 a.m. mass in the basilica. Afterwards, the priest Mr. Erasmy was kind enough to briefly explain the history of the basilica from its beginnings in the 7th century to the present day. He reviewed the various destructions and reconstructions that the basilica has undergone over the centuries.
Under his guidance, the group visited the crypt where the sarcophagus of Saint Willibrord is located, who evangelized this region by propagating the Christian faith there. He is notably the patron saint of Luxembourg and the dancing procession celebrated on Pentecost Tuesday to honor his memory has been on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity since 2010.
Around 10:30 a.m., the group left Echternach along the Sûre on cycle path n. 3. Shortly before noon a lunch break took place in Born, a small village near the Sûre. After regaining strength, thanks to a barbecue, the group set off again on track n. 3 to the port of Mertert to now take track n. 4 to Niederanven. It is precisely here that the route joins the cycle path n. 2 and the last kilometers of the course thus corresponded to the first of the day before. The arrival at Glacis was around 7:30 p.m.
Tired after these two days of cycling, everyone was able to realize how much, in contact with the air and nature, these physical efforts on the bike help to find relaxation and satisfaction.
But traveling by bike avoids CO2 pollution and reduces greenhouse effects. They support the desired ecological change.
On Saturday, March 6, the committee of the association Ad Pacem servandam (For Peace and Against War) held its fourth general assembly online. All the members of the board were present, 18 members of the association followed the meeting online, and 22 people apologized.
After giving a general overview of the different items on the agenda, President Claude Pantaleoni reviewed all the activities and operations for the year 2020.
The vice-president, Mrs. Natalya Pantaleoni, presented the aid to the victims of the war in Eastern Ukraine as well as the three new scholarship holders from this region that Ad Pacem has been supporting for a few months.
An important point of the 2020 activities was the elaboration of the Ad Pacem 2021 calendar. It was based on photos taken by four members of the association during the Peace March that runs along the front line of the Great War between 1915 and 1918 between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was sold in parishes, high schools, and among members and friends.
Mr. Christian Welter, the treasurer, presented a detailed financial report for the year 2020 which was validated by the auditor Mr. Patrice Picart.
The committee is pleased to announce the acceptance of a new member, Mr. Laurent Tran Van Mang. The last items on the agenda concerned the next Peace March that the association plans to make in Bosnia-Herzegovina on the traces of the Balkan wars of the 1990-s. It also plans some outings with young people (bike trips, museum visits, etc.) and plans meetings with war victims.
For one week, from Monday 7 September to Friday 11 September 2020, some of our members walked a stretch of the 650 km “Sentiero della Pace” (Path of Peace), which runs along the Italian or”Alpine front”of the First World War. It was here that the Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies faced each other between 1915 and 1918. The chosen route is located in the Pre-Alps of Vicenza, near the town of Rovereto and Lake Garda.
The aim was to discover, in places of the “Great War”, as the Italians call the First World War, the very harsh reality of a mountain war – little known in Europe – although it claimed about one million victims in the military corps of both countries.
On Saturday 29 February 2020, our association “For peace and against war” invited Mr Gabriel Becker, from Lorraine, to present the Nazi camp of Ban St-Jean in Moselle (F) on the 20th “Salon du Livre et des cultures” in Luxembourg. This camp is in fact a mass grave containing the remains of 20,000 Soviet prisoners of the Second World War.
Before giving the floor to the guest, the President of the Association, Mr Claude Pantaleoni, introduced Mr Becker and his research work within the AFU (French-Ukrainian Association), which is responsible for the rehabilitation of the camp.
The mass grave of Ban St-Jean is in Moselle, near Boulay, about one hour from Luxembourg. Gabriel Becker, a retired German teacher, has been researching testimonies, archive documents and memorabilia for twenty years to save the history of this Soviet prison camp from oblivion. He is vice president and co-founder of the Franco-Ukrainian Association (AFU), which works to preserve the camp.
Becker has published four books in which he explains the drama of the last world war and the ups and downs of the camp’s rehabilitation.
Nazi transit camp
The speaker began by explaining that the local population did not want to deal with this camp after the war and did everything they could to forget the place, partly because the people were worried about their survival and were busy with the difficult organisation of their daily lives.
Gabriel Becker, a retired professor of German, has been collecting testimonials, archive documents and memorabilia for the past twenty years to bring back to life the history of this prison camp. He is the author of four books on the subject:
Le camp du BAN SAINT-JEAN (1941-1944), Lumière sur une honte enf(o)uie
Le drame ukrainien en France (Moselle) (1941-1944), Mementote…
Camp du Ban Saint-Jean, Moselle, La Revie
Camp du Ban Saint-Jean Moselle, Nadejda : Espoir
He is vice-president and co-founder of the Association Franco-Ukrainienne (AFU) for the rehabilitation of the Ban Saint-Jean mass grave near Boulay, Moselle.
During his lecture, he will present the twists and turns of the dark history of this transit camp (300,000 prisoners) and death camp (22,000 dead).
The third General Assembly of our association “For Peace and Against War” was held on Wednesday 5 February 2020 on the 1st floor of the regional cultural centre “Aalt Stadhaus”, 38 avenue Charlotte in Differdange (L). The president, the vice-president and the secretary were present for the committee, the treasurer being excused, leaving a proxy to the secretary Christian Welter. Sixteen members were present in the room, while twenty-three had sent apologies. After welcoming everyone, the president gave a detailed report of all the activities, related to the three objectives of the association, that it had organised during 2019.
Our non-profit organisation “Pour la Paix et contre la Guerre” financed and sent in 2019 all the musical instruments to a group of young people who want to oppose music to war.
Avdiivka is an industrial town in Ukraine, which borders the town of Donetsk controlled by pro-Russian militias. In the pre-war period, i.e. before 2014, cultural life was mainly concentrated in Donetsk. In Avdiivka there were only factories and dormitory towns. Since the summer of 2014, the inhabitants of Avdiivka have been living close to the front line.
A Ukrainian-patriotic couple, Svetlana and Oleksiy Savkevych, have been working since the beginning of the war to promote leisure activities for the young people of their town. In May 2018, they even managed to organise a festival of Ukrainian culture in Avdiivka.
This festival generated great interest in music among young people. That is why Oleksiy wanted to find and set up a music room for young people. It should be a space where young people could meet each other away from the streets and war, learn from each other and make music together.
In the beginning, the young people met in garages and abandoned houses and formed a rock band. They had poor quality guitars and only one old drum kit, which a local woman had given them as a gift. Broomsticks were used to hold the microphones. Oleksiy asked the city council and political leaders to give him a room where young people could continue to make music.
In December 2018, our association contacted Oleksiy Savkevich and offered to organise a charity concert for the benefit of young musicians in Avdiivka, so that the instruments could be financed. We then invited Oleksiy and his daughter Marika to our home. On March 24, 2019, we organized a big charity concert in Villerupt (France).
The day before, on 23 March, at the end of the mass in the church of Bascharage, Oleksiy spoke about the dangers and difficulties of daily life in Avdiivka, his hometown near the front. On this occasion, people also made donations to the project.
Thanks to the donations from Bascharage and the profits from the charity concert in Villerupt, we were able to buy the following equipment: three electric guitars, two acoustic guitars, a bass guitar, four amplifiers, a keyboard, a mixing table, two microphones, two stands and the necessary cables. The material was sent to Avdiivka at the end of December 2019. In the meantime, a large room in a school in the town has been made available to the young people for their “music room” project. They have renovated this room, and since January 2020 they have been playing music there in peace and freedom.
From the end of July to the beginning of September 2019, a young member of our association, Mr. Anselmo Malvetti, undertook a peace march from Lake Geneva to the shores of the Mediterranean. He thus wanted to draw attention to the Russian-Ukrainian war which, since 2014, has caused more than 14,000 deaths and has driven 1.5 million Ukrainians from their homeland. Most of them have taken refuge in free Ukraine.
In autumn, Anselmo gave us the twelve most beautiful photos he took during his walk to make a beautiful calendar for 2020, thanks to Lisa Battestini’s design.
Since the beginning of December it has been sold for 10€ (8€ for students). 100% of the profit goes to the victims of the wars that we help to rebuild their lives. On our website you can see examples of how we are helping them in a concrete way.
If someone still wants to buy a calendar, they can do so by ordering it by phone (+352 621 280 850) or by sending a text message, leaving their name and phone number.
On the 17th and 18th of December 2019 our association “Ad pacem” organized a cultural and educational trip to Alsace. Together with three teachers, twenty-five pupils from the Lycée de Garçons in Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg) visited the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp, the Alsace Moselle Memorial in Schirmeck and the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Visit of the concentration camp
Twenty-five pupils from the Lycée de Garçons d’Esch-sur-Alzette undertook an educational trip to Alsace on 17 December, accompanied by three teachers, Mr Claude Pantaleoni, Mr Christian Welter and Mrs Dora Almeida.
The first stop was a visit to the former Nazi concentration camp of Natzweiler-Struthof south of Strasbourg, where we arrived by bus at about 10.30 am. The whole site is a “national necropolis” where 22,000 people, mostly political deportees and resistance fighters, were murdered because of their opposition to the Nazi system. Many of approximately 400 Luxembourgers who were interned there also lost their lives.
During the month of November 2019, Ukrainian Caritas in Dnipro, a city of millions in eastern Ukraine, contacted us to ask if we could send clothes, shoes and gifts to be distributed to about 40 refugee children aged 1 to 15 years.
Spontaneously, several members of our association donated clothes, shoes and gifts for this aid action. Two boxes of children’s clothes were given to us by the Red Cross Section of Villerupt (France).
The Greek-Catholic community of Dnipro organizes the help for the families who fled from the pro-Russian occupied territories of Luhansk and Donetsk. All fled for political and/or religious reasons.
On 15 December we sent five large cardboard boxes with a total of 80 kilos to Dnipro, which arrived there on Friday 20 December. Everything was distributed to the children, young people and parents.
Students from the Lycée de Garçons d’Esch-sur-Alzette (LGE) in Esch organised the sale of home-made pastries during the breaks from 21 October to 12 November 2019. The proceeds were in favour of Ludmila Bazhenova and her grandson Danil. Both are war refugees from Donetsk (Eastern Ukraine), a city occupied by pro-Russian separatists.
Until the end of October, both were helped by Caritas in Dnipro. This aid organisation has passed on this difficult situation to us, in mid-October, from the seventy-year-old grandmother Ludmila and and her grandson Danil, who is twelve years old. Both fled from Donetsk in 2017 because the family situation had become untenable for the grandmother and the child.
Danil’s mother gave birth to a handicapped child in 2014 during the bombings. The father, not the natural father of Danil, was sent to prison where he was tortured for months by the separatists. During forced labor in the open air he managed to escape and he came back to the family in secret. But, he became so mentally unstable that he constantly beat Danil. The grandmother could not stand this difficult situation any longer, and since she found no help in the occupied zone, she decided to flee with her grandson. They escaped without any problems through unguarded mine-filled fields, into free Ukraine to safety and reached the city of Dnipro.
During the first year, however, all their money reserves evaporated without them being able to stabilize their situation financially. Finally they asked for help from the Greek Catholic community and Caritas. The latter asked us in mid-October if we could help on our part.
In order to guarantee this help for the two refugees, we visited a dozen classes of the LGE, during the subject “Life and Society”, to explain to the students how a war destroys a family in the long term. But we also explained that every student can help this family if they participate in a bake sale. In every class there were students who were willing to help.
During the breaks the students and the teachers could taste delicious cakes for two and a half weeks for 1€ a piece. The sale generated a total of 650€. With this money we will pay Ludmila and Danil the rent of an apartment until April 2020. Until then Caritas hopes to find a way out for the two refugees.
Our conference, entitled “Cross-European order of peace between ideas and reality, organised in the creative Hub 1535° of Differdange, on the morning of the 9th of November was amply visited.
The conference was led in German by Dr. Bruno Schoch, a leading expert and researcher at the Leibnitz and Hessian Institute for peace and conflict research, located in Frankfurt-on-the-Main (Germany).
We also invited a panel of politicians to assist: Luxembourgish MPs from various parties as well as representatives of German political parties will be assisting the conference and participating in the debate.
The following special invitees participated in the debate:
Ms Tilly Metz, déi Gréng (Green Party)
Mr Gary Diderich, Déi Lénk (Left Party)
Mr Sven Clement, Piratepartei Lëtzebuerg (Luxembourg Pirate Party)
Mr Thomas Barth, European Speaker of the CDU-Fraction in the state parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany)
Mr Stefan Thielen, Chief Whip of the CDU-Fraction in the state parliament of Saarland (Germany)
A detailed report about the conference will be available soon on this website.
