Kiev, September 1, 2023
news.church.ua
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, distributed backpacks to hundreds of displaced children yesterday and blessed them for the upcoming school year.
Met. Onuphry celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the patronal feast at the Holy Ascension-St. Florus Convent in Kiev, after which he served a moleben before the start of the new academic year, reports the Information-Education Department of the UOC.
After the moleben, His Beatitude blessed a group of 200 students from internally displaced families and presented them with backpacks and school supplies.
Each set cost about $27 (1,000 hryvnia).
The philanthropic program Backpack of Mercy has been operating for several years. OrthoChristian reported on the event in 
Children from needy families receive school supplies from Ukrainian ChurchStudying requires a lot of effort, and a lot of resources, Bp. Sylvester noted. Thus, with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, the children were given gifts useful for their education.
“>2020, 
Ukrainian Church provides backpacks full of school supplies to hundreds of childrenEach backpack with its supplies costs about $40-$45, which is a lot of money for struggling families, commented Archpriest Sergei Eskhiyan, who headed the organization of the event. The charitable event was funded by private donors and charitable organizations.”>2021, and 
Metropolitan Onuphry distributes backpacks to children from internally displaced familiesThe event was held this year with the financial support of Met. Onuphry’s charitable foundation Peace to You.”>2022.
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