Yesterday (16/July/13), in the midst of the 9th of Av – the historical mourning day on which the temple was destroyed – tragedy hit in Krivoy Rog, Ukraine as a 4 year old girl, Pauline Turyanskaya was run over by a car while crossing the road with her mother and sister.

The Turyanskaya family, part of the Jewish community in town, has known misery in the past. They live in poverty and are assisted regularly by the joint humanitarian aid efforts of the FJC & the IFCJ. The entire family of six, now tragically only five, lives in a small two room shattered home. Their 7 year old boy, Alexander, is disabled and is treated for delayed development; the father hardly makes a living as a mine worker.

The mother, now hospitalized with severe wounds, is unemployed and finds it very difficult to raise her beloved family in such circumstances, but still is known for her lovely and devoted personality and excellent education.

The funeral which was attended by the entire Jewish community, but not the injured mother, touched deeply the hearts of its participants. The father, now in a state of deep shock, could hardly communicate and the deceased’s sister and brother could not stop crying.

In reaction, the entire community, many of whose members are assisted regularly by the FJC’s and the IFCJ’s humanitarian aid programs, decided spontaneously to give from the little they have and collected together a sum of over 1000 Ukrainian Grivney in order to assist the family in their time of need.