| TRAVEL REPORT UKRAINE |
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In June Cees de Jong, vice chairman and project officer for the Volinsk project, visited Jouke and Arianne Spriensma in the Ukraine. You can read his experiences and the project progress below. What I first noticed during my trip was that the roads had improved considerably compared to my last trip. They are still not the our standards in Holland, but the large holes in the road surface have mostly been solved. And yet it seems that time has come to a standstill. Vast plains with grain, rapeseed and potatoes are followed by large forests. It is very rare that you see a car drive past.At the farm, which is managed by Jouke, everyone is very busy. This is a big difference compared to my last visit. After the activities during spring, such as the planting of the latest crops, the farm is now preparing for harvesting. This means that all the machines and buildings are made ready for storage, because the storage capacity had to be increased and improved. Despite the reduced resources caused by the economic downturn and other circumstances visiting farmers say that for the first time the 145 hectares of crops look good to excellent. We now have 57 ha of winter wheat, 23 ha of summer barley, 21 ha of buckwheat, 20 ha of oats, 12 ha of winter rapeseed, 10 ha of potatoes and 2 ha of beets. The beets and some of the wheat are not so good but the potatoes on the other hand are very good. That the farm is performing well can actually be noticed by looking at the reactions of the people in the neighborhood. The landlords were quite skeptical at the start, but during the latest shareholders' meeting, which I attended myself, everyone was very positive! Our different approach leads to others offering us more than 50 ha of additional land. Unfortunately we do not yet have the financial resources for this extension. The contact with the rehabilitation center Bilichy for men is good. The men regularly come to the farm for day activities which allows us to offer them something. The center was very satisfied that it could swap its wood for our unused feed mill.    The fields look very good. Surprises still exist Freshly planted seed potatoes were stolen! And also in June more potatoes were stolen. After a positive meeting the hunting club decided to offer us surveillance! It also appeared that buildings had been bought but had not been registered yet. The registration process has started now. The farm also lacks an office and sanitary provisions. You will understand what this means. We now have one small building as an office, with a shower and toilet and meeting facilities. About 17 young people from a Baptist community in Holland will fully renovate this building in July 2009. They collected money and will bring a lot of material, such as a complete heating unit. After the renovations the workers will be able to take a shower and visitors will be able to stay overnight. Visitors, e.g. farmers, come to the farm regularly and assist Jouke with practical advice and sometimes even offer money or equipment. "Although it hasn't always been easy we are happy with the way the people and the crops are developing", says Jouke. Besides my visit to the farm I also visited a number of rehabilitation centers and a children's home. The children's home is currently being renovated and will soon accommodate 80 children of different ages. It looks really fantastic. Which is not (yet) the case for the rehabilitation centers. If you see the building you wonder which century we live in. The building is old and often the toilets and shower are out of order. Not all the centers have hot and cold running water and during winter it is very cold inside. There is only one heater which still uses coal. The people living there are very happy with everything Arianne and World Partners do for them Last winter, together a number of women, she made little flags out of rags, which will be sold in Holland. This helped them raise money, which will allow them to do other things. During summer almost everyone of the rehabilitation center lives on the land. They grow different things, mostly with seeds from Holland, such as potatoes, cabbage, lettuce but also gladiolus and tulips. Arianne now wants to grow strawberries and give guidance to the people to sell them on the market. In autumn syrup-waffles will be baked and sold. All these activities will generate money and help the residents to return to society. It is important to give them a sense of self esteem and hope for the future. Together with Jouke and Arianne and their daughter Christa we also sent an afternoon with Erik de Vries. Erik managed a pig farm of World Partners in the past. He now works independently and has a yearly turnover of 6,000 piglets. You can call this a big success. We also had some time left to visit the bigger city Novovolinsk. There we could experience what modern times have brought to the Ukraine. A lot of traffic and the problems accompanied by that. But also many improvements and renovations to buildings, many tourists, also from Holland, nice tourist spots, nice food and an outdoor drink, which the locals love too. It was a very inspiring trip and I will go back next year!
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