More than 400 people flee from shelling in Sviatogorsk Lavra and its sketes
Despite the difficult situation, the monastery itself, its sketes and farmsteads continue to provide shelter to the needy.
The Sviatogorsk Lavra, its sketes and farmsteads are sheltering 407 people, 80 of whom are children, as reported by the monastery's Telegram channel.
Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatogorsk, the Lavra's abbot, is constantly monitoring the living conditions of the refugees, providing them with adequate food, especially for children. In the basement of the sketes' premises, all conditions have been arranged for the refugees to stay during the air raid and artillery cannonade. Adults are involved in various obediences, taking measures to protect the premises by covering vulnerable places with sandbags and help in the kitchen. For children, play corners are arranged where creative activities are organised. Children are busy drawing, playing games and learning to embroider beads.
Refugees from 20 settlements in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, including 70 children, continue to stay in the Lavra itself despite the airstrike that hit the monastery buildings. From damaged building No. 9, 350 people have been placed in the basement.
"Thus, the total number of refugees in Sviatogorsk Lavra and its sketes as of the morning of March 22 is 407 people, including 80 children. In addition, local residents of Sviatogorsk, Bogorodichnoye, Adamovka, and Nikolskoye in the specially equipped shelters in the sketes and farmsteads of the Lavra are sheltering more than 100 people during the air-raid," the monastery's press service reports.
Metropolitan Arseniy and brethren of the monastery provide shelter, food, clothing, and hygiene products for the needy. The refugees themselves take part in the life of the monastery and carry out necessary obediences. Children are also looked after by their parents and sisters, who try to establish life as normal as possible. Social services are carried out at the monastery even though the destroyed communications and military operations on the territories surrounding the monastery and its sketes make the delivery of humanitarian aid difficult.
As reported, after the shelling on March 12, 2022, worship services in the UOC monastery of Sviatogorsk are going on unchanged, monks are restoring the damaged monastery and refugees are receiving humanitarian aid.
