Four years of ACN support in war-torn Ukraine
The generosity of countless benefactors has helped to keep the Church in Ukraine alive and ready to continue to help those suffering most from the full scale invasion of 2022.
When the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, on 24 February 2022, millions of people were forced to flee their homes and seek refuge.
Julia, who fled Kharkiv with her family, found shelter at a convent. “For over a month we lived with Sisters Paulina and Barbara. Their hospitality amazed me daily.”
“We began attending church each week — something our busy city life had rarely allowed. I had deep, honest conversations with the sisters. It was the greatest gift in that dark time: a profound spiritual awakening. When we finally left Ukraine so the children could continue school, the sisters said goodbye as if we were family, giving us gifts — including a perpetual calendar I still use today,” she writes in a testimony sent to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
Julia’s experience is anything but unique. All over the country churches, monasteries, convents and seminaries opened their doors to take in the displaced and offer immediate aid and comfort. In many cases what made this effort possible was the tireless devotion of the pastoral agents on the front line and the generosity of ACN benefactors in the background.
Over the past four years ACN has supported 1256 projects in Ukraine, for a total of over 30 million euros. This money has helped to feed the poor and the displaced – every day the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth in Chornomorsk prepares up to 100 hot meals and distributes food parcels to 60 families, refugees, elderly people and even soldiers; it has helped pay for health expenses, including life threatening injuries caused directly by the war, and also trauma healing programmes, which are especially crucial at this time; it has bought generators and fuel to run them, in a country whose energy infrastructures are constantly being targeted, especially during freezing winters; it has bought vehicles so that pastoral agents can reach the communities they serve.
Above all, it has provided hope and the certainty that those who are feeling this war in their minds and bodies every day are not alone.
“We thank God daily for all donors who allow us to bring goodness and normality in wartime. Love is stronger than fear, stronger than death”, write the sisters of St Elizabeth, in a message to ACN.
The Little Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, from Odessa, say that “in a city marked by blackouts, bombings, and floods, your help provided generator fuel, heat, light, and the possibility to continue catechesis and prayer. Thanks to your support, a sister-doctor received professional training to assist wounded soldiers and their families. Much of your aid also covered medical treatment for the sisters themselves. Your help is truly great. God will reward you for every good you do.”
“From the first few months of the invasion, the parish organised concrete aid: food, medicine and hygiene supplies for the most vulnerable. For over half a year, the parish house sheltered refugees from occupied territories. For many, it was the only safe place where they could not only survive but also regain a sense of dignity and belonging. Our mission is simple and profound: to unite practical help with the Gospel in action. God is present even in the simplest gestures of help. And slowly, something remarkable happens. The pain does not disappear — but it is transformed. Tears cease to be only despair and become prayer,” writes Fr Oleksander Ryepin, of St Joseph’s parish in Mykolayiv. These are just a few of hundreds of letters and messages of appreciation received over the past four years. They are a testimony of gratitude to the countless ACN’s benefactors who have made this help possible. Thanks to these benefactors, the Church remains alive in Ukraine, constantly available to continue to serve a suffering people and to keep alive in their hearts the hope of which Julia speaks at the end of her letter: “Every day I dream of returning to my beloved Kharkiv. And we will return. The war will end.”
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