Ukraine Energy-driven Projects
Read about Australian born entrepreneur who is building innovative, business projects in rural Ukraine.
Wayne and Olya Zschech are a formidable team in Ukraine. Crossing barriers of race, culture and politics, they are empowering people to build better lives. Young and brimming with enthusiasm, seventeen-year-old Wayne Zschech had just graduated from high school with a dream to join the Australian Defence Forces but contracted Chicken Pox just before he was tested for entry into the Australian Defence Force Academy. After failing the medical Wayne was advised to get a job for a year and then try again the following year. However, Wayne decided to take a year out to invest in community regeneration in the Ukraine and he arrived in 1993. He has never left. Today, fifteen years later Wayne has settled into his life in the Ukraine and is having the time of his life. Together with his Ukrainian wife, Olya and their twin boys Mark and Matthew, in rural Ukraine they have a vision of community regeneration which is premised by the belief that by implementing a holistic approach, the Zschech’s can bring lasting change to those living in the aftermath of communism.
Olya studied at the Linguistics University, where she became a translator for Ukraine’s Ministry of Nuclear Safety and Environmental Protection before marrying Wayne and moving to the village. Their boys are in Grade 2 and are fluent in Russian, Ukrainian and English.
Ukraine is the second-largest country in Europe. Most of Ukraine was formerly a part of the Russian Empire but after World War II, the entire country was a part of the Soviet Union. Despite a brief flash of independence at the end of the czarist regime, Ukraine was incorporated into the new USSR after the Russian Civil War in 1922 and subject to two disastrous famines (1932-3 and 1946) as well as brutal fighting during World War II. The last century was an extraordinarily tough one for the people of Ukraine. the impact of the atrocities committed against the people was horrifying. In 1932-33, many millions of Ukrainian villagers were systematically annihilated during the forced famine instigated by the Soviet government. During World War II another nine million Ukrainians perished. Since independence in 1991, Ukraine’s woes continued with the national population declining from 52 million to 47 million, mainly due to abandonment by the government, corruption and a continuing economic crisis.
When the Zchechs first moved to the regional country town of Kaharlyk, they met with strong government resistance. But despite all odds and even a Ukrainian KGB investigation, they stayed. During the early years when all doors were shut in their face, the Zchechs made a decision to stand strong in the land. They learned the language, local culture and slowly made new contacts.
Five years later, they have been given an impressive two-story building and property in a strategic location in the heart of the town. Wayne recalls, “People like me simply don’t buy buildings like that, in places and times like that. It is especially amazing because the money came in anonymously. Of course, the next day we were called to the public prosecutor’s office to have our documents checked!” After the building purchase, the vision for Community Transformation through Christian Enterprise and Discipleship was given shape with a strategy. Since 2003, various entrepreneurial and renewable energy projects have been implemented including growing mushrooms, producing bio-gas, making bio-diesel and manufacturing insulated foam concrete building blocks. The goal is to make these into viable businesses and use the profits to fund various faith-based ministries and community projects.
For more information on Wayne and Olya Zschech and their work in the Ukraine, visit www3.calvarychapel.com/kagarlyk/.