Austria: Vienna Christian Centre - Gerhard Kisslinger.
The funds they received went towards helping to fund the following activities:
Temporary Housing and Food for Ukrainian Refugees.
Helping Refugees who were travelling through Austria to Germany - Providing housing for 2 days so they can rest, take showers and eat. Providing clothes and preparing travel packages for the refugees to take on their journey.
First Responder Support in Moldova - Working directly with a Moldavian pastor and their church who are serving refugees as they cross the border into Moldova.
First Responder Support in Romania - Gathering critical supplies like sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, baby diapers, toiletries, etc. These are being driven to the Romanian / Ukrainian border to be distributed by partner churches.
Working Directly with the Ukrainian Embassy in Vienna, Austria - We are gathering / purchasing critical medical supplies to deliver to the Ukrainian Embassy in Austria, we were asked directly by the Embassy to take on this project.
Slovakia: Slovakia AOG - Jozef Brenkus
The funds received by Apoštolská církev na Slovensku (Assemblies of God) for their Ukraine Crisis relief were for the following purposes:
Decrease mental, emotional, and physical suffering of the refugees- Through counselling, interacting with refugees, providing assistance with requested medical checkups.
Decrease the impact of material damage - Humanitarian aid.
Restore dignity - Providing accommodation, meals, helping them to be self-sufficient (having a local job, kids in local schools, rent own apartment and provide for their needs).
Assist in their integration into the Slovak community
They are achieving this through Humanitarian aid, which includes the following:
Accommodation & Food
Assistance services:
First contact - At the border or after bringing refugees to the first stop in Slovakia
Logistics - As refugees arrive in Slovakia, their information is processed and a new available church is located
Education & Child Care - Our national media are reporting on the rising issue of having insufficient capacity at kindergartens and elementary schools. Two of our churches have acted fast and investigated in their cities how to operate a kindergarten in the church.
Legal assistance - To help them get settled in Slovakia.
Training & Counselling - For their staff and volunteers who are helping the refugees to prevent burn out.
Community Building & Care - We would like to assist the Ukrainian refugees to integrate into the Slovak community as easily as possible. We selected good resources for a short Slovak language course.
Italy: Sabaoth Church - Stefania Spezzacatena
The funds they received were used to help with their relief work in 3 areas.
At the Border - The government has given them a refugee camp to run at the border assisting the refugees.
Inside Ukraine - They are taking supplies to those still inside.
In Italy - Providing homes and hosts for refugee families in Italy.
Read their report in more detail below:
Denmark: Kirkernes Integrations Tjeneste (KIT) - Reuben Falk
The funds they received were to buy and distribute 1000 school bags with a loaded pencil case, lunch box and water bottle for Ukrainian refugee school children about to attend school in Denmark. They were able to make a good deal with a major Danish manufacturer of the school bags and were able to stretch the budget to 1200 bags! Churches from all denominations have taken part in this and a good outcome from the project has been that local churches have been able to work together with local municipalities when giving out the bags.
They were really thankful to be networked with Samaritan’s Purse. It was very helpful in aiding the independent churches in Denmark to reach the Ukrainian refugees.
Below are pictures showing some of the bags being given out in Roskilde, Denmark, where the local Baptist church has entered a partnership with the municipality. As a part of the event the church hired an ice cream truck, which handed out free ice cream to all the Ukrainian refugees that attended the handout.
Hungary: HGMI - Vivien Flo
The aim of the HGMI project is to help those refugees of war who as a minority have already been detested in their country, the highly disadvantaged Roma. They accommodate and render immediate, tangible help to these refugees and manage the crisis holistically. They do this by:
Safety, providing accommodation and food on a daily basis for the refugees. The HGMI HPC is already helping in 350 Hungarian municipalities (towns and villages together) and at once opened its community centres for refugees. This gives respect for human dignity where daily meals, personal hygiene, and undisturbed rest is secured
According to their mission they help the Hungarian-speaking highly disadvantaged Roma families, who are not welcome in other places, paying special attention to their needs.
These refugees not only face war trauma, the manifold loss, fleeing one’s homeland, broken families, but also the spiritual wounds caused by discrimination. For this, the presence of crisis intervention specialists is paramount. They represent Christ through His love and mercy; through help, they hope to reach their hearts taking care of their bodily and spiritual wounds.
The crisis management programme approaches war refugees with a holistic view. Not only providing accommodation for them, but also bodily, spiritual, and mental crises as well. First and foremost, they take care of physical needs. By creating accommodations. They also help refugees granted refugee status in Hungary to obtain their proper personal documents., necessary health care and welfare services, help to work, and both children and adults the possibility to study.
The most important aim of their project is to show Christ’s love to the refugees in crisis through complex help. They also hope to see that the Roma and non-Roma congregations of Hungary experience a spiritual awakening, which can be seen in working together. A crisis, the need to help others, teaches disadvantaged communities that there are persecuted people living under worse circumstances, and they can take steps to satisfy the needs of these people.
The pictures below show some of the families who have been accommodated.