Hillel in Ukraine Rocks With Good Deeds Week

by Dasha Privalko

Hillel Ukraine continues to be out front with their support of Good Deeds Day – an international initiative launched in 2007 by the Israel based Ruach Tova nonprofit and supported by The Ted Arison Family Foundation. And in the Ukraine, Good Deeds Day has been taken one step further with the country-wide embracing of Good Deeds Week.

Along with the many “traditional” good deeds that Hillel Ukraine has regularly been involved with for the past three years – including visits to orphanages, to hospitals with children suffering from cancer and HIV, senior residences, shelters for abandoned animals and more –  this year they have broadened their reach by inspiring Ukrainian university students to not only participate in Hillel projects but to launch their own initiatives.

To conclude this year’s Good Deeds Week, Kiev and Kharkov Hillel activists arranged a charitable auction of artworks, created by sick children and orphans. In addition to sales of the children’s paintings, Hillel volunteers gathered secret wishes from these kids to create “trees of wishes”, where each leaf was a child’s dream, and participants of the auction were invited to fulfill a child’s dream on the spot.

The initiative was also supported by professional artists and musicians, not as star guests, but as participants – donating their own paintings, to be sold from the auction with the proceeds being directed to children. The popular Ukrainian band “Captain Grant’s Children” created a festive atmosphere, the sold-out auction played to a full-house and guests were happy to know that their participation may change some little lives for the better.

Good Deeds Week in Ukraine was extensively covered by local media and TV channels and videos are available on the official project’s website (so far, only in Russian but the videos speak for themselves).

See also Hillel Kiev asks, What is Happiness?