Rativtsi Rroma Community Centre Building Proposal

Rativtsi Church and Children Center

Church of the Living God began serving the residents of the village of Rativtsi in 2004 when Pastor Korchi Brugosh and Ivan Kondyk planted a church in the Roma camp there. For its first 9 years, Korchi and Ivan helped meet people’s physical needs as they were able and gathered on Sundays in different people’s homes. As the ministry in Rativtsi began to grow, Ivan was ordained pastor in 2012 and began leading the church. In 2015 the church acquired its first building, a small 7×4 meter former house, and through hard work turned it into a ministry centre that soon began to regularly provide hot meals to local children, along with literacy classes.

Today, the church’s service to the community has grown far beyond what its cramped building can provide:

  • 60-80 children are fed twice a week, but there’s no kitchen, so the meals must be prepared 15km away, at the pastor’s home, and transported there.
  • Summer camps are held for up to 150 children from neighboring villages, but all activities must take place outdoors because there’s only room to comfortably fit 30 inside the building
  • In 2017 the church hosted a medical mission team from the U.S. which came to serve the camp; the doctors had to provide examinations and diagnoses outdoors in cold and windy conditions because the building was only big enough to serve as a pharmacy and dental clinic.
  • The church is usually standing room only for Sunday services, with no place to provide children’s activities.

Our goal is to provide a new building that will be big enough to comfortably support all of this busy little church’s outreach to children in Rativtsi and allow it to grow! A local builder has drawn up plans for a modest 10 x 10-meter building and the village mayor has given her approval.

The new building would be nearly four times bigger than the current one and would provide:

  • a separate canteen and kitchen, with room to seat 80 children. This room will double as a Sunday school classroom, where children can be taught during weekly church services.
  • a new, larger meeting hall, with room to seat 100 people. This room will be big enough to be used for both the current children’s literacy classes, as well as adult classes.

Changepoint Church of Poughkeepsie, New York (USA) has already pledged a matching grant of $15,000, which will cover about half of the building’s estimated total cost of $31,000. We’re looking for a partner that shares our vision of bringing new life and transforming the next generation of Roma in Transcarpathia, Ukraine. I hope that your organization will be that partner and be willing to make a generous contribution of $16,000 to bring this dream of a new Roma children’s community center to reality.

Proposed design for Roma children’s community center Rativtsi, Zakarpatska oblast, Ukraine

1 July, 2018

Building uses (based on the current use of the existing building):

  • Children’s feeding program twice a week, serving hot meals to 50-80 children.
  • Literacy program for children (3 days/week)
  • Bible study for leaders (Mondays) – Youth ministry (weekly)
    Sunday service (approx. 50 people in congregation)

Building uses (which can only be done with an enlarged building):

  • Prepare meals onsite (At present, the pastor’s wife cooks meals at home and they must be transported from Uzhhorod – a 15-minute ride by car)
  • Community outreach/evangelism
  • Sunday school for children
  • Summer camp for children
  • Space to feed up to 150 children
  • Room for multiple literacy classes
  • Space to set up a clinic for visiting medical mission teams to serve the community

Front elevation

Construction: Wood frame, foam insulation, metal roof, ceramic tile floors, ceramic tile walls (kitchen/cafeteria area)

Floor Plan

Floor Plan

Floor Plan

Cost estimates:

*Note: the total cost will include building a steel perimeter fence around the church property and construction of an outdoor toilet

  • Wood: $1945
  • Foam: $885
  • Plaster: $245
  • Roof: $1080
  • Tile floor and walls: $1040
  • Plywood: $810
  • Ceiling: $700
  • Lights: $560
  • Façade covering: $1540
- Heating system: $4000
  • Windows: $350
  • Concrete: $1540
  • Plastic film: $500
  • Labor: 1 lead contractor plus 4-5 semi-skilled helpers: $16,000
  • Estimated total cost (materials + labor: $31,000

Funding:

  • Changepoint Church (Poughkeepsie, New York, USA) has already committed to raising $15,000
  • Transcarpathian charity fund Життя і Надія (Hope & Life) have already raised funds for and completed the following phases of the project:
  • 50-meter deep well drilled for the building, to supply clean water for the feeding program and provide safe, clean drinking water to people in the surrounding camp.
  • purchase materials for a steel perimeter fence for the community centre’s property, to prevent dumping of waste and protect the building from theft.

Collage