Since the beginning of the great war, Lyubov Shelkovych has not used an alarm clock. Every morning, and sometimes even at night, she is woken up by the sounds of messages she receives or phone calls from soldiers, volunteers, and benefactors from abroad.
Then she jumps to her feet and starts her usual daily routine: she collects requests for vehicles, drones, equipment, medicines – what the guys at the front need and where, goes to receive humanitarian aid, and sometimes visits soldiers or travels to a European country.
A minivan sent to the East was named in her honor
Lyubov Shelkovych, who now heads a charity organization Center of People of Good Will, started volunteering in 2014 when her husband Vyacheslav Miroshnyk, although not a military man (he was in business), volunteered to go to the war.
‘As soon as the war broke out in Donbas,’ says Lyubov, ’Slava immediately became a volunteer. He contributed his minivan to the ATO. He took all his tools with him. He helped in any way he could. And at some point he decided that his place was at the front. Seeing the real needs of the army, he encouraged me to become a volunteer.’
The first thing the husband asked his wife was to raise money for a Mercedes Vito.
‘To be honest, it was hard for me to start,’ Lyubov continues, ’but I managed to raise the money for the Mercedes Vito. Then the minivan was adapted for transportation of the wounded: benches were installed and the windows were replaced with sheet metal. And we sent it to the East.’
The soldiers named the minivan ‘Lyubochka’ in honor of the volunteer. However, she did not know about it at first.
‘One day I called Slava and heard someone on the radio telling him: ‘Lyubochka has arrived. Do you want me to let her in?’ The volunteer continues, smiling: ‘I don’t understand. What Lyubochka do you have there?’ And he: ‘Oh, I forgot to tell you that the van you sent us was named Lyubochka.’
…In September 2014, during a battle, Vyacheslav Miroshnyk, the deputy company commander, was seriously wounded near Debaltseve and was shell shocked. He died in a military hospital on April 24, 2015 at the age of 43. Viacheslav Miroshnyk was awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, III class (posthumously).
She knew every child by sight
After her husband’s death, Lyubov did not despair or withdraw into herself, but found the meaning of life in serving others. So she returned to volunteering and joined a non-governmental organization that brought together widows and mothers from Rivne who had lost their husbands and sons in the war in 2014-2015.
– ‘It was very hard after Slavik’s death,’ she continues with a sigh, ‘and that’s when I was hired as an assistant by a volunteer from Kyiv, Svitlana Bakhvalova, who had set up rehabilitation for ATO participants in the Carpathians.
When the regional veterans’ organization “United Family” was later established, bringing together families who had lost relatives in the war, Lyubov Shelkovych became its deputy chairman.
– ‘The “United Family” was working to support the families of fallen soldiers,’ the woman says, ‘We were looking for donors on our own, helping families as much as we could. Before the full-scale war, we had more than 100 children under our care. I knew each of them by sight, and now the list has grown so long that it’s sometimes frightening.
The sons followed in their father’s footsteps
The full-scale russian invasion, despite the fact that Lyubov Shelkovych had been living with war since 2014, came as a real shock to her. But perhaps the most difficult moment she experienced was the day before, on February 23, when she heard from her youngest son Vanya (who recently turned 21):
‘Mom, you don’t think that I’m going to sit on the sofa if the war starts?..’
– And he didn’t,’ says Lyubov, unable to hold back her tears, ’on the very first day he went and enlisted in the Territorial Defense Forces. Her older sons, twins Vova and Slavchyk, at first tried to talk him out of it, and then, went to the military enlistment office themselves.
The older, 27-year-old sons Volodymyr and Viacheslav, both IT engineers who initially helped their mother volunteer, have been in the Armed Forces for two years now. Volodymyr was the first to join the Armed Forces on June 8, 2022. He was followed by Viacheslav in August. And Vanya, who now works as a sales manager, helps his mother with everyday volunteer tasks: loading, delivering, and taking things to the post office.
She did everything that was most necessary
On February 24, Lyubov Shelkovych and other volunteers went to work at the humanitarian headquarters at the Rivne Drama Theatre. A lot of different aid came there. All of it had to be sorted and sent to the guys at the front line.
– ‘We were also engaged in catering,’ says the volunteer. ‘We cooked at Fatima Huseynova’s home. We could feed up to 700 people a day. These were internally displaced persons, soldiers, people from Territorial Defense’…
Later, the need arose to transport vehicles from abroad, and Liubov Shelkovych, who had considerable driving experience, got behind the wheel. They were returning to Ukraine with vehicles packed with things necessary for the military.
Volunteering has become ‘the essence of the soul’
The charitable organization ‘Charitable Foundation “Center of People of Good Will”, headed by Lyubov Shelkovych, was registered only in 2022.
– ‘The backbone of the charity is made up of widows,’ the volunteer explains, ‘Tania Remeniuk, Katia Svirchevska, Vira Bukovska, Vita Shalyapina (her husband immediately joined the Armed Forces and died), Yelena Bybyk (her brother died)… But there are many more people in the group’.
Volunteering, which the women do in parallel with their main jobs, has become, as Lyubov puts it, ‘the essence of the soul’ for each of them.
– ‘We work in the following format: we call each other up – who has what, who needs what, who can do what – and then we act. We get together mostly on weekends to plan and organize. Sometimes we raise funds for the foundation or organize lotteries/sales of toys, paintings, and artwork on social media. People often offer to help because they know us well. In short, it all boils down to the fact that we first need to collect from all over the world, and then divide it among everyone who needs it.
And so on every day, over and over again. Sometimes, in the morning, she loads cars with everything necessary for the guys at the front without any breaks. Then she runs to work at the Art Maestro, an art school-studio. Only there can she catch her breath and recharge her batteries with the joy she gets from communicating with children. Lyubov has no time to relax at work either. She holds exhibitions of children’s works. Children draw pictures which are send to soldiers.
Afterword
On the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the church built in honor of the righteous Juliania, Princess Olshanska, when priest Yuriy Deshchynskyi presented Lyubov Shelkovych with the Cross of Freedom medal, she accepted this award as a trust in the Charitable Foundation ‘Centre of People of Good Will’, which she heads.
– ‘Thanks to your trust and your donations, we can actively help our defenders. They are fighting for our freedom in hellish battles. We will endure against rashizm only together. They cannot overcome us, because we are already free and in a circle of friends. I am in the chain of goodness’.
Vasyl HERUS
Read also: Cars for the front: How a woman from Rivne helps the Ukrainian Armed Forces