The story of Mrs. Honcharenko, like her bread, has crossed layers of loss, resilience and hope. Before 2014, she lived in Horlivka, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, working as a doctor in a mine and raising four children with her husband, Dmytro. Life was stable, full of routine and love.
When the fights in Donetsk broke out that year, the family had to leave everything and move to Totretsk nearby, which remained under the control of the Ukrainian government.
“The first months, I felt completely lost,” she recalls. “Then I came across an ad for an entrepreneurship. He asked, “What do you know?” And I immediately thought – the pancakes! I was doing them all the time for my family.
Hanna Honcharenko directs a bakery in Dnipro in eastern Ukraine,
From this memory, a company was born. She bought a pancake manufacturer and a coffee machine and rented a small space. But it was bread that really called him.
“Everyone in my family cooked: my mother, my grandmother, but I have never been very good in this area. I failed again and again. However, I continued to try. I knew that one day it would work. ”
It did. Today, Ms. Honcharenko’s bakery sells more than 20 types of bread.
Oven dough
In 2019, she received a subsidy from the International Organization for Migration (Iom) This allowed him to buy a large oven – the heart of his business. He cooked bread through two cities, survived bombing and was repaired and moved.
“When the large-scale war started, everything I could think was how to get out the oven,” she said. “No money, no documents – the oven. Without that, I couldn’t start again. »»
In 2022, Ms. Honcharenko and her family were forced to move again – this time in Dnipro. They excited their personal effects, their dog, their oven, and started again.
A few weeks later, the bakery reopened.
The Donetsk region in Ukraine was strongly bombed during the war.
“My son, who had never shown any interest in cooking before,” said, “I’m going to cook with you. My daughter-in-law took over the counter and my husband renovated the locals.
Today, Ms. Honcharenko directs two bakeries in Dnipro – one managed by her and the other by her son. In 2023, Iom provided additional support to help him buy new equipment for the second location. Assistance has enabled the family to extend the business and create more job possibilities for other displaced people.
Rising star
The menu includes more than 20 types of bread, cookies, croissants, nuts, cinnamon rollers and its bestseller: the Donbas poppy seed roller, with three times more poppy seeds than the dough. “We always have queues for that,” she smiles. “Some recipes have not succeeded in the new city, but others have become emblematic. I learn with my clients. ”
The displaced people were its first customers in Dnipro.
The best -selling poppy seed roll, a special family recipe.
“I wrote on social networks:” You are welcome to come for tea and a conversation. Stop. And people did it.
“I want to keep this feeling, no matter how much we grow up,” she said. “I dream of hiring families: mothers and girls, husbands and women, brothers and sisters working side by side. Because the family is a support pillar. You cannot count on anyone as you can count on your family. ”
Its history is only one of the many. Since the start of the Russian Invasion on a large scale in 2022, the IOM has supported more than 1,800 Ukrainian micro-enterprises and small businesses with subsidies and consultants to help them adapt to the challenges of an economy in wartime.
The OIM says that he remains determined to stand with entrepreneurs across Ukraine, helping them to rebuild, grow and continue despite uncertainty.
However, uncertainty persists. She admits that she is always afraid, especially since the attacks on Ukrainian cities continue to affect daily life and customer participation.
“When it’s strong at night, it’s calm in the morning,” she said. “But we open anyway. Someone has to continue life. »»
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
