Ukrainian Seventh-day Adventists in the southern region of Vinnitsa recently celebrated the grand opening of their country's second Adventist health facility.
Ukrainian Seventh-day Adventists in the southern region of Vinnitsa recently celebrated the grand opening of their country’s second Adventist health facility. The new center, known as Our Home, offers a ten-day in-patient program based on natural health principles.
“I’ve dreamed of such a lifestyle center for ten years,” says Nadia Ivanova, director of health ministries for Adventists in the Euro-Asia region. “In this part of the world, we urgently need a practical approach to health.”
The center offers both medical consultations and natural treatments such as water therapy, massage, nutrition lectures, and exercise. Similar programs in other countries have proved especially helpful for patients with arthritis, diabetes, stress, nicotine or alcohol addiction, heart disease, obesity, and other problems related to lifestyle.
Ukrainians and Russians are more receptive than many Westerners to natural health concepts, says Ivanova. “During Communist times people spent their vacations in health centers,” she explains. “Our people are accustomed to massage and water treatments. But now these government-sponsored facilities hardly exist, so this center fills a real need. And as Adventists, we hope to offer people the benefit of spiritual principles along with a better lifestyle.”
Ivanova says that the Vinnitsa facility was largely sponsored by Adventist-laymen’s Services and Industries, a ministry-oriented group of business owners and managers based in North America. Much of the staff training was provided by Wildwood Lifestyle Center, located in the state of Georgia, United States.
The first Adventist health facility in Ukraine was opened near the city of Nikolaev in 1999. “These two centers make Ukraine the leader in Adventist health ministries for our part of the world,” says Valery Ivanov, communication director for Adventists in Euro-Asia. “Now we need to do something in Russia.”
Life expectancy in Ukraine, Russia, and most other former Soviet nations has declined since the 1980s. Some of the causes, such as poor medical facilities, environmental pollution, nuclear radiation, and poverty are beyond the control of average citizens. However, Ivanova says that the Russian Ministry of Health estimates that six in seven deaths are preventable. “As in most other countries, our lifestyle is the biggest health risk. Heart disease is responsible for more than half of all deaths in Russia.”
Some officials estimate that life expectancy for Russian males has fallen below 60 years, while expectancy for females is 10 to 15 years higher. This gender gap, one of the largest in the world, is attributed in part to the higher rate of alcohol abuse among men.
