Presentation by Rev. Jan Dus

First Presbyterian Church of Waterloo
Thursday, Feb, 27 at 6:00 PM

The Rev. Jan Dus, a Presbyterian minister who lives in Prague, in the Czech Republic, will be speaking at First Presbyterian Church, 505 Franklin Street, Waterloo, on Thursday, February 27, at 6:00 p.m. in Calvin Hall. The public is invited.

Rev. Dus created a humanitarian organization called Camino in 2022 to help Ukrainians after the start of the war. Camino is involved in a handful of projects across Ukraine, assisting everyone from senior citizens to children. It supports House of Mercy in a small town south of Kyiv. This senior citizens’ home, designed for 35 residents, has housed more than a hundred refugees, including mothers with children fleeing the war. Camino supports three orphanages, all on the outskirts of Kyiv. In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, it helps fund a food distribution program that prepares thousands of meals a day.

Based in the Czech Republic, Camino is a fully volunteer-based, grassroots organization with no paid staff, including Dus’ position as director. Dus speaks fluent Russian and can understand Ukrainian. He works with families that are divided, displaced and grieving. People show him photographs of their homes, damaged by the fighting, and say “I have nowhere to go back. My house doesn’t exist. I don’t know where to go. Basically, I don’t belong anywhere.”

When he asks Ukrainians how people from outside the country can help, “typically the first thing they mention is prayer,” Dus said. “Pray for us. Don’t forget about us. Remember us. Pray for Ukraine.”

Rev. Dus is in the U.S. to report on current conditions and needs, and to raise funds for the projects of Camino. You can read more about Dus and these projects at the Presbyterian Foundation website, from which the summary above was taken.