Missio Romania: Helping Ukrainian refugees in crisis

Tents serve as temporary shelters for refugees at Bucharest Railway Station

Source: Missio

Missio Romania is asking for our prayers as they work to support refugees from Ukraine. Fr Eugene, Missio's National Director in Romania, has been keeping in touch.

On Friday 11 March, Fr Eugene visited the train station in Bucharest (Gara de Nord) in order to see how he could help those fleeing from conflict. He shared:

"Two large waiting rooms are reserved for the Ukrainians, with security guards at the doors. NGOs have established some help tables with snacks and drinks.

"They have set up some tents in the corridor of the train station as temporary shelters. They have to use the common toilets and there are no showers. The Romanian government gave every person a Romanian SIM card for their phone and registered them in order to communicate with them when need be. So, it is easy to communicate with the refugees since they have a local number. Otherwise, with roaming calls or data it would be very expensive.

"I made enquiries about how I could go about taking a family to board in my house. The guardians sent me to a reception point where I had to register and give my contact details so they could call me when someone came looking for accommodation. Many people know that we are accepting Ukrainian refugees and I expect to be contacted at any time.

"Some of the people are heartily destroyed. They've come through very tough moments."

Please keep the people of Ukraine - and those in surrounding countries who are the first responders in this emergency - in your prayers.

On Sunday 20 March, Fr Eugene sent more news from Romania: "The situation of the war does not diminish but becomes worse. More refugees are crossing the border daily. Today I received two young women with a child. They told me very simply: 'We want to stay the three of us in the same room; we do not have any food; we do not have any money; we want to stay until we find a job and get some money to be able to rent a room and to get the basic things for living.'

'I try to provide what they need for living and I also pray for them to get a job to be able to live by themselves. I try to understand their souls: to understand how hard it is to daily depend on the compassion of the others for an undetermined time, to start the life from zero and with the family split by the war. May God have compassion on them!"

Fr Eugene also sent this video, explaining the wider situation and how Missio Romania is responding across the country. See:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8EoAO2m74k&feature=youtu.be

Pray with Missio

Conflict is an issue on everyone's mind right now. But with faith and hope we bring our worries to God. The world's problems are huge. But through prayer, we connect to each other and our planet and, strengthened, answer God's call to action.

Please find Missio's prayers for Ukraine and for the world at: https://missio.org.uk/pray-for-the-world/