Enthusiastic volunteers prepare to load a 40-foot container with used clothing and household items bound for Moldova. The ministry known as For the Least of These collects donations from thrift stores and ships them to Transnistria, one of the poorest areas in the world.
Lyonel Doherty photo
A small group of people in Oliver continue to do big things that are making a world of difference.
Once again, a dozen men milled around an old turkey farm on Tucelnuit Road, where they anxiously awaited the arrival of a tractor trailer unit.
Towering pallets of used clothing, shoes and household goods were ready for loading before making the three-month journey to Transnistria, Moldova – the poorest country in Europe.
“It’s amazing when you think about how much stuff (in society) is thrown away,” said Bob Ellis, president of For the Least of These in Oliver, a charitable organization established in 2008.
Ed Greenwood operates the forklift that loads the pallets into the 40-foot container, a routine that occurs two or three times a year at Jeff Crowley’s farm. Crowley literally stores tons of clothing and other goods in his barn to help For the Least of These.
Ellis said donations come from thrift stores in Oliver, Osoyoos and Keremeos. These items are sorted and shipped to Moldova.
The unique thing about this operation is it has created jobs in Transnistria, where the unemployment rate is about 50 per cent, Ellis said.
He noted that more than 20 thrift stores have been established in this poverty-stricken area, resulting in about 100 paying jobs for people.
“It’s a real win-win situation for them . . . it’s a livelihood,” Ellis said.
Bob Dyck, who’s been helping the cause since the beginning, said seeing how people live in Moldova is an eye-opening experience.
He and his wife travelled to Tiraspol (the capital of Transnistria) to help assemble playground equipment at two orphanages. The equipment was built in Oliver a few years ago.
Dyck said his parents were born in the Ukraine (not that far from Moldova), and if they had not come to Canada, he may have lived that poor lifestyle too.
Dyck said there are very few cars on the road, and when you see people walking on the street, they have their head down; they don’t look you in the eye.
For Dyck and fellow humanitarians Jeff Crowley and Dan Biro, helping people in Moldova warms the heart and soul.
“It’s a real blessing to know I can help people this way,” Biro said.
Crowley said a lot of the credit goes to the many volunteers behind the scenes in Oliver. He noted that thousands of man-hours go into sorting all of the donations. For example, a number of ladies sort clothing in a small room above Beyond Bliss on Main Street.
Crowley showed the Chronicle his barn, which is packed full to the ceiling with bags of clothing and boxes of household goods and toys.
He pointed out one item that looked like a cadaver table, which he said will likely be used to sort clothing in Transnistria.
Crowley, no stranger to Moldova, said parents and their children basically live day-to-day in that country.
It makes one feel guilty living in Canada. “Tell me about it,” he agreed.
For Crowley, it’s a good feeling to know that the charitable operation in Oliver is creating jobs where they are desperately needed.
“Bob (Ellis) is a real role model for me,” he said before hopping into the container to help load it.
Lyonel Doherty
Oliver Chronicle
