The Caritas Partners Meeting and the Charity Forum took place in Warsaw for three days. At the meeting, it was announced that the network of Caritas Europa allocated 100 million euros to help Ukraine. It was stressed that this assistance should become long-term due to the millions of refugees who were forced to flee their homes.
This was reported by the Polish newspaper Goṡć.pl.
The meeting in the Polish capital was attended by more than 50 delegates from Caritas Europa and Caritas International from 25 countries providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine and supporting refugees from Ukraine in Poland. Ukraine was represented by the director of Caritas Ukraine, Tetiana Stavnycha and the head of the humanitarian department of Caritas Ukraine, Hryhoriy Seleshchuk.
During a briefing on June 15, Maria Niemann, Secretary-General of Caritas Europa, said that one-third of Ukrainians left their homes because of the war. It is already estimated that the war damage in Ukraine tops almost 100 billion dollars. Therefore, according to Maria Niemann, the help to Caritas will be long-term. She stressed that the charity operates in 160 countries, including 46 in Europe.
Most refugees from Ukraine came to Poland and are taken care of by Caritas. For her part, Silvia Sinibaldi, Caritas Europa's director of international and humanitarian cooperation, said the countries bordering Ukraine had also "implemented the confederation's aid appeals, which meant full funding".
"Each member of Caritas Europa has conducted individual campaigns to help Ukraine," said Silvia Sinibaldi.
At the briefing, the director of Caritas Poland, Fr. Dr. Marcin Izicki, said that the first tranche of aid was more than 5.3 million zlotys (more than 1.2 million euros).
"The funds raised were intended for financial support for families and the cross-border hub for humanitarian flights in agreement with Caritas Ukraine and Caritas Spes," said Fr. Dr. M. Izicki. At the same time, the second humanitarian call for further assistance to Ukraine was announced within the framework of the Charity Forum. It provides a quota of more than 15 million euros or about 70 million zlotys.
According to Fr. Marcin, support for migrants will be implemented in Poland through 32 centers for migrants and refugees. These funds will be used for direct one-time support for families and will also provide support in the organization of psychological and legal assistance, job search or learning the Polish language, as well as in the organization of child care.
"Since the beginning of the war, more than 500,000 people have received the support of Caritas-Spes," said Fr. Vyacheslav Grynevych. 34 care centers provide safe accommodation for several days or weeks. In addition, people are constantly receiving food assistance. Today, according to Fr. V. Grynevych, 5,000 people in these centers need support. There is also a special information line for people who could receive financial and psychological assistance. "Two people serve this line. More than 1,500 people call daily asking for food or hygiene products, as well as information about the possibility of leaving or living in another, safer place," said the director of Caritas Spes.
Director of Caritas Ukraine Tetiana Stavnycha stressed that "there are three types of regions in Ukraine: areas near the front line, recently liberated areas where there is a need to rebuild houses and areas where people stay in the war zone for a long time." T. Stavnycha said that Caritas Ukraine has 36 regional centers and 97 hubs in parishes.
The head of the humanitarian department of Caritas Ukraine, Hryhoriy Seleshchuk, informed that the organization "handed over more than 664 thousand food packages and more than 268 thousand packages with hygienic products". Also, according to him, 33,000 people were provided with medical care, 27,000 were provided with safe accommodation, and almost 19,000 of those who needed psychological assistance received it.
In response to the crisis appeals of Caritas International, the two Caritas organizations in Ukraine and regional Caritas from several countries declared € 4.5 million in assistance to Caritas Spes and € 18 million to Caritas Ukraine. In both cases, the amount of aid provided has already exceeded the first declarations.
As part of the Charity Forum, two panel discussions took place in Warsaw. Experts from the public administration, non-governmental sectors and businesses discussed further ways to provide charitable assistance to Ukrainian refugees, which the participants predict will only increase.
Translated from Polish by Ihor Sklenar.