Ms. Honcharenko’s story, like her bread, has risen by way of layers of loss, resilience, and hope. Earlier than 2014, she lived in Horlivka, in Ukraine’s Donetsk area, working as a physician at a mine and elevating 4 kids along with her husband, Dmytro. Life was secure, stuffed with routine and love.
When the combating in Donetsk broke out that 12 months, the household needed to go away all the things behind and transfer to close by Toretsk, which remained underneath the management of the Ukrainian authorities.
“The primary few months, I felt utterly misplaced,” she recalled. “Then I got here throughout an advert for an entrepreneurship course. It requested: ‘What are you aware greatest?’ And I instantly thought – crêpes! I used to make them on a regular basis for my household.”
Hanna Honcharenko runs a bakery in Dnipro in japanese Ukraine,
From that reminiscence, a enterprise was born. She purchased a crêpe maker and a espresso machine and rented a tiny house. Nevertheless it was baking bread that really known as to her.
“Everybody in my household baked: my mom, my grandmother, however I used to be by no means superb at it. I failed many times. Nonetheless, I stored making an attempt. I knew that at some point it could work.”
It did. Right now, Ms. Honcharenko’s bakery sells greater than 20 sorts of bread.
Oven dough
In 2019, she acquired a grant from the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM) that allowed her to buy a big oven – the guts of her enterprise. It has baked bread by way of two cities, survived shelling, and been repaired and relocated.
“When the full-scale warfare began, all I might consider was find out how to get the oven out,” she mentioned. “Not cash, not paperwork – the oven. With out it, I wouldn’t be capable to begin over once more.”
In 2022, Ms. Honcharenko’s and her household had been pressured to maneuver once more – this time to Dnipro. They packed their belongings, their canine, oven, and started once more.
Just a few weeks later, the bakery reopened.
The Donetsk area of Ukraine has been closely bombed in the course of the warfare.
“My son, who had by no means proven any curiosity in baking earlier than, mentioned: ‘I am going to bake with you.’ My daughter-in-law took over-the-counter and my husband renovated the premises. We did all the things collectively. For us, a household enterprise isn’t only a construction – it’s the guts of what we do.”
Right now, Ms. Honcharenko runs two bakeries in Dnipro – one managed by her and the opposite by her son. In 2023, IOM offered extra help to assist her buy new gear for the second location. The help allowed the household to increase the enterprise and create extra job alternatives for different displaced folks.
Rising star
The menu consists of greater than 20 sorts of bread, cookies, croissants, nuts, cinnamon rolls, and her best-seller: the Donbas poppy seed roll, with 3 times extra poppy seed than dough. “We all the time have queues for it,” she smiled. “Some recipes didn’t catch on within the new metropolis, however others grew to become iconic. I study together with my prospects.”
Displaced folks had been her first prospects in Dnipro.
The very best-selling poppy seed roll, a particular household recipe.
“I wrote on social media: ‘You’re welcome to come back for tea and a chat. Simply cease by.’ And other people did. They had been scared and lonely, identical to us. We supported one another. Later, Dnipro locals began coming too.”
“I need to maintain this sense, regardless of how a lot we develop,” she mentioned. “I dream of hiring households: moms and daughters, husbands and wives, siblings working facet by facet. As a result of household is a pillar of help. You’ll be able to’t depend on anybody like you may depend on your loved ones.”
Her story is only one of many. Because the begin of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, IOM has supported over 1,800 Ukrainian micro and small companies with grants and consultancies to assist them adapt to the challenges of a wartime financial system.
IOM says it stays dedicated to standing with entrepreneurs throughout Ukraine, serving to them rebuild, develop, and stick with it regardless of the uncertainty.
Nonetheless, uncertainty lingers. she admits that she nonetheless will get scared, particularly as assaults on Ukrainian cities proceed to have an effect on day by day life and buyer turnout.
“When it’s loud at night time, it’s quiet within the morning,” she mentioned. “However we open anyway. Somebody has to maintain life going.”
