Mar 25, 2014

Your Campaign Dollars at Work: Bringing Relief in Times of Crisis

Marianna Tikich

While the rest of the world waits for a resolution to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, people living in the region are struggling with daily challenges – and getting the assistance they need through the Annual Greater Miami Jewish Federation/UJA Campaign.

One such recipient is Marianna Tikich, a lively 14-year-old who has enjoyed practicing music at the JCC and performing at community celebrations in Mariupol, a city of approximately 500,000 in southeastern Ukraine.

Marianna’s mother, Elena, was unemployed, and her father, Leonid, was fighting to provide for his family on his small salary from Mariupol’s airport, where he worked in operations. The family of three was living on about $260 a month – until the airport decided to furlough its employees due to the economic impact of the political crisis.

Then the unthinkable happened: Marianna was hospitalized after a stroke. Though the initial diagnosis was recurrent cardiomyopathy – a weakening of the heart muscle – a final cause was not fully determined, and more tests were required.

When Leonid and Elena found themselves unable to pay for their daughter’s growing medical expenses, the Jewish community stepped in to help. Federation’s long-time overseas partner, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), and its funded agency, Jewish Family Service (JFS), paid for Marianna’s medicines and heart and brain ultrasounds. They also provided the family with supermarket food cards and winter clothes, and they will continue to help until the Tikich family is back on their feet.

Marianna and her family are among the thousands of people Federation and its partner agencies are assisting in communities across the globe. Because the Annual Federation/UJA Campaign sustains a vital infrastructure of social-service, humanitarian, educational and community-building organizations that is in place 365 days a year, Federation’s partner agencies were already helping vulnerable people in Ukraine well before the recent political crisis occurred. Then, when the situation resulted in food shortages, the suspension of public services, and growing fear for the safety of local residents, these critical organizations were able to mobilize immediately, delivering emergency food, medicine, in-home care and added security to the most vulnerable – and help to families like Marianna’s.

“We may never meet the people who receive the help an Annual Campaign gift provides, but we are profoundly connected with them,” Federation General Campaign Chair Robert Berrin said. “One gift helps members of our local and global Jewish family in ordinary times, with food and medicine, financial assistance, day school and camp scholarships, job training, emotional counseling and much more. And when crisis strikes – whether it’s an economic downturn, a political crisis or a natural disaster – we are already there to respond.”

To learn more about the many programs and services your one Federation gift helps to support every day in Miami, in Israel and in more than 70 other countries worldwide, click here or call 305.576.4000. To make a gift securely online now, click here.