Operation Winter Rescue
Help provide food and warmth to some of the most vulnerable during the coldest months of the year. Winter is the hardest season for families struggling in poverty across Eastern Europe. Fridged temperatures, homes with little to no insulation or protection from the elements, and skyrocketing utility expenses force many families to choose between heating OR eating throughout the winter months.
As the temperatures plunge, life gets more difficult as many families don't have indoor plumbing which means cold trips outside at all hours to use the washroom, and struggle to haul water inside.
For Dumitru, 70, home is a disused, draughty garage in Moldova. He lives alone. His siblings are no longer alive, and his family have become complete strangers to him.
Through Operation Winter Rescue, the Mission gave him briquettes to heat his home, as well as warm clothing, a blanket and a pillow.
As Dumitru lit the fire in the potbelly stove in the garage where he lives, he said, “These briquettes saved me from freezing. When winter came, I didn’t know how I was going to make it.”
“With my pension of 1,600 MDL (90 USD), I can only pay for the electricity here and get some food to eat. I rarely have any money to buy firewood, which is expensive.”
Most homes of the families we work with are in disrepair and only have a single small wood-burning stove that is used both for cooking and heating the entire house.
Access to heating materials like firewood and briquettes is often out of reach as the cost can be too high, leaving many searching for scrap wood to try and keep warm.
Mission Without Borders' Operation Winter Rescue Program helps families in need by providing warm clothes, blankets, boots, and heating supplies throughout the coldest months so families don't have to choose between heating or eating.
Please help us reach more families with the supplies they need to stay warm and fed this winter. Donate and support Operation Winter Rescue today.
Many of the families we work with don't have access to indoor plumbing at home, creating a higher rise of illness and disease, not to mention cold trips out to the outhouse at all hours in the winter.
Keeping clean water inside can also be a challenge as the modest homes often lack insulation or proper windows.
Operation Winter Rescue provides the food and resources to help combat the cold and keep families fed.
