Effort to help Ukraine covered Founder of God’s Hidden Treasures speaks at Breakfast Rotary Club
Nita Hanson has spent the last 25 years working to help the less fortunate in Ukraine, but in the early morning of February 24 that effort obviously took on a new meaning.
While in the U.S., Hanson kept receiving emails from the God’s Hidden Treasurers office in Ukraine. “Everything’s exploding. I’m scared,” one email said.
Then another email stated “All of Ukraine is being bombed.” And another. “Our military here is being bombed.”
Hanson of Thousand Oaks, Calif., founded God’s Hidden Treasurers 25 years ago. She founded the organization to serve the needs of those with disabilities and orphans in Ukraine.
On the organization’s website, godshiddentreasures.org, is the Biblical verse that guides the organization’s mission, Psalm 82:3: Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
While the organization states its mission is to provide hope to the forgotten of Ukraine, with Russia’s invasion of the country, God’s Hidden Treasures has now expanded its effort to help all those in need in the country during the time of war. Hanson spoke about her organization’s effort at the Breakfast Club of Porterville’s meeting on Thursday.
Hanson lives in Ukraine about six months out of the year but hasn’t been able to return since the war began. On that early morning of February 24 she had to help those in the organization’s office in Ukraine on what direction would be taken. “That was a pretty traumatic moment,” Hanson said, adding there was the realization “we may never see each other again.”
The organization’s focus is now on providing whatever humanitarian aid
Ukraine needs. It has been working with the Ukrainian government in assisting with its effort in providing flour, sugar and yeast to make bread to be distributed. The organization has also worked with providing the Ukrainian military with iodine.
The organization now has staff members in four countries. Along with Ukraine there are two staff members in Germany, three in Poland and one in Slovakia. The organization has a doctor in Germany who among her tasks is providing stroke therapy over the phone.
The organization is also helping with the evacuation of Ukrainians and also with Ukrainian refugees still in the country. Hanson said 5 million Ukrainians have been evacuated from the country while another six million Ukrainian refugees are still in the country.
She talked about dealing with one of the evacuees, an interpreter, who Hanson said cried for days. “I’m a traitor,” said Hanson about what she said. “I left my country. I want to go home.” Hanson said she wanted to reassure her she was doing what she needed to do.
Hanson said evacuees come to the border at Poland with nothing more than a suitcase, leaving family members behind, and need to decide right then which European country they will be sent to. “I can’t imagine what that’s like,” Hanson said.
God’s Hidden Treasures has a wheelchair ministry, an outreach ministry and a medical ministry. It has been working to buy food for those in Ukraine since the war began. Hanson said the organization purchased 9,000 pounds of food for those in Ukraine on Wednesday. The organization is working to provide for whatever humanitarian needs there are from providing medicine to soap and diapers.
One major task the organization is taking on is purchasing 290 wheelchairs and 296 walkers for those in Ukraine at a cost of $24,000, not including shipping. Breakfast Rotary Club President Rob Taylor, who own Stafford’s Chocolates, announced the club was helping the organization take a big step toward that purchase by providing a $5,000 check to the organization.
Rotary Club of Porterville members also attended Thursday’s meeting and that club will also look at how it can help the organization at its next meeting. Taylor also presented the organization a gift of Stafford’s Chocolates to Hanson.
Those who would like to donate to the organization can send checks to God’s Hidden Treasures, 3321 SW 39th Street, Ocala, Fla. 34475. Checks should be made designated to Ukraine War Effort.
Donations can also be made at the organization’s website, godshiddentreasures.org. On the website is information about the organization, including a blog and Youtube and Facebook pages.