At the end of October 2022, Leena Hakala and Anne Laine came to Vienna for a Hanukkah workshop. These two hardworking volunteers put together sixty attractive gift bags for the Jewish community of Rădăuți in eastern Romania. We also bought groceries for Ukraine.
Leena and Anne report on their workshop experiences below:
“When we first planned the Hanukkah gift packs for the Jewish community of Rădăuți, our new contact, in the summer, it seemed like a distant idea. But now we were in Vienna (October 28th – November 3rd, 2022).
We arrived in Vienna on October 28th and Anne Ylitalo was already waiting for us. After coffee we went shopping. The purchases were brought to the camp and in the evening we wanted to complete the gift bags. On Saturday morning, shopping continued at the wholesale market.
We learned from Hannu that the Ukrainian soldiers needed warm clothing, hats, socks, flannel shirts, combs and a small ration of sugar.
Our friends in the western Finnish town of Kankaanpää had already sent a large number of colorful woolen socks and slippers – almost 300 pieces.
On Saturday afternoon, after the shopping spree, we started making about 60 gift bags for the Jewish community of Rădăuți. The cloth gift bags had already been purchased in advance. The contents of the gift bags consisted of coffee, tea, spaghetti, olives, canned fish, napkins, candles, chocolate, biscuits, wool slippers and soap.
Then we decided to put together two separate gift boxes for Ukraine, one for families and one for children. The family box contained good and necessary food. The children’s boxes contained sweets and other nibbles. When she made her purchases, Anne also took into account the gifts for the liaisons. There were so many socks that we decided to send those to Ukraine as well.
The soldiers received warm flannel shirts, wool slippers, cotton socks and snacks such as nuts, raisins, sugar cubes, coffee and cocoa, as well as the pocket combs they wanted.
On Sunday, Anne received a message from a neighbor and friend who wanted to donate clothes. After receiving these donations, we went to the camp and made many warm packages from these clothes.
The car was fully loaded with relief supplies. However, we waited to put away the Hanukkah gift bags because the gift cards we ordered for the bags could not be printed until Monday. Finally the time had come and we were able to add a heartfelt message to every gift package:
“The HILFE und HOFFNUNG team wishes you a happy Hanukkah! The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. – Psalm 23”
The car was fully loaded with relief supplies. A big thank you to everyone who helped out in one way or another. May the Heavenly Father reward your love!”
Leena Hakala and Anne Laine