Where are we involved - Mission to the Gypsies in Ukraine

BMA has been involved in the work among the Gypsies in Ukraine, in the Mukaczewo region, where about 40.000 of them live in an extreme poverty. The ministry focuses on the humanitarian aid: sending clothes, blankets, help in constructing schools, wells and, buying medicine.
 

Mukaczewo -the biggest Gypsy settlement is inhabited by over 4.500 people. The life conditions there are far worse than in the slums of Bombay or Calcutta. There is a similar situation in more than 80 Gypsy villages in that area.


The main problems:

- poverty

- unemployment

- no access to the medical help

- illiteracy among children and adults

The lack of job opportunities forces some to move to Hungary or to further parts of Ukraine for seasonal jobs while others simply look for "different ways" to find some income.

People live in terrible conditions: mud houses, no piped water or electricity. There is no savage system. After rain streets become one huge bog.

 

 

Many sicknesses result from those horrible conditions. The main source of water are shallow wells, where the water gets contaminated by nearby toilets.  Children often suffer from diarrhoea, many have tuberculoses.

 

Although there are no official statistics, the life expectancy among the Gypsies is similar to life in Ethiopia and does not go beyond 50 years old.

 

(A street in Bakasowo in Autumn. Below the same street in Summer time)

 

Cooperation with the Church in Ukraine

BSM cooperates with the Evangelical Church of the Living God, which has been involved in the ministry among the Gypses for many years now since the Communism times. Churches have been planted in over 20 villages. Wherever possible BMA has been helping in adapting the church halls into class rooms, where children can study during the week. On Sundays the same rooms are used for Christian services.

 

Transformed lifes

Gypses who became Christians ask to learn to read and write. They also want their children to attend schools so that they can read the Bible. They realize that only Gospel can change the mentality and the life style of their ethnic group.

Their amazing testimonies show the life before and after they met with Christ.


Men stop drinking alcohol and beating their wives (which is quite common among the Gypsies). They can be baptized and accepted into the local church only after there is a noticeable change in their lives.

 

Women break off with the fortune-telling and many other sins.