Ukrainian Refugee Relief
As events in Ukraine unfold, it is difficult not to be affected by what we see and read. You may be wondering how best to help and how can I be sure that my donations will go directly toward the relief effort?
Our CEO and President, Bob Aylward, was recently invited by the Executive Director of Ananias House, a Houston-based NGO, to go to Poland to experience firsthand the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Poland shares a border with Ukraine and has seen over 3,000,000 refugees stream into their country to escape the war with Russia. Most of these refugees are women and children and arrive with virtually nothing. The Polish people have graciously welcomed these Ukrainian families and have opened their homes to provide temporary housing, food, and clothing. In the City of Warsaw, with a population of roughly 1.5 million, over 500,000 Ukrainian refugees are now living there. The situation is similar in many other Polish and eastern European cities. The Polish government provides short term assistance but after several days, the refugees are handed off to NGOs, primarily local churches, to help the Ukrainian families find housing and get them acclimated to living in Poland.
After meeting with a number of these church pastors from across the country, the primary need is for monetary resources that they can use for housing and daycare (so that the Ukrainian women can find jobs). Most other resources (food, clothing, and medical supplies) can be more easily procured locally than collecting items in the US and shipping them to Poland. The needs of the refugees also can change over time, and it takes several months to ship items to Poland, which can make the timing of these donations difficult to manage.
With this in mind, the Quiddity Foundation has decided to focus our relief efforts on raising financial support that will be used to help the Polish churches provide the needed resources to their new Ukrainian neighbors living in Polish cities. In order to provide additional accountability on how our donations will be used, we have decided to hire Ukrainian refugees to serve as field coordinators to document how resources are being used and report back to us on a monthly basis. This will provide much needed local jobs for the refugees and is a better use of resources than paying for shipping containers to send goods to Poland.
The Ukrainian people have been through a great deal these past few months and we have an opportunity to show them that we care by providing the type of support that will make the biggest impact. If you are able, we hope you will consider making a monetary donation that will help provide much needed housing, employment, and childcare for these people in need of support. If you would like to join us in our Ukrainian refugee relief effort, you can make a secure donation using the form below. Thank you in advance for your generosity!