What is it like to volunteer for a campaign to clean-up a vast, overgrown Jewish cemetery?
In this blog post, Yevhenii Shatskyi, the camp leader for this summer’s SVIT International work camp at the Jewish cemetery in Chernivtsy, Ukraine, details how an international group of volunteers organized themselves to work five to six hours each day clearning vegetation and cleaning gravestones and monuments.
First of all, we strictly arranged the waking time at 6 am in order to finish our 5-hours hard work day before the afternoon. So we did as we arranged. We usually woke up among 6, 6:15, 6:30, and 6:45 am:). I should be honest, so there was one person who always woke up at 6 am or even earlier. It was unstoppable Felicity from Ireland; she was the oldest volunteer in the camp (considering the age) and at the same time – the youngest (considering the actions).Usually work in the camp consisted from cleaning the weed and bushes on the graves and providing simple restoration work, yet NOT THIS TIME! Why not? Because we had remarkable Antek in our group. He wanted to work like real worker, so we gave him such an opportunity by giving him special saw for mowing the grass and cutting bushes. He seemed satisfied and work became faster and “more professional”.
The SVIT cemetery clean-up camp takes place each summer. This year there were fewer volunteers than usual — just nine — due to concerns over the political situation and conflict in Ukraine.
It is obvious, that each camp has its own specificity, each camp is unique. Yet, not each camp all the time shows how ruthlessly can be destroyed all kind of stereotypes, how all people from different cultures, believes, mind sets can interact peacefully, friendly and kindly. This camp has been the brightest example of such a show.
SVIT-Ukraine is the Ukrainian branch of SCI (Service Civil International). It organizes local and international volunteer activities.