The impact of eight months of war on Ukraine has been devastating. More than 6,200 civilians and 11,800 Ukrainian military personnel have been killed since Russia’s invasion in February. The war has displaced nearly eight million people so far, and Ukrainians continue to flee to safer regions in the country and to neighboring nations.
Since the invasion, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Sambir-Drohobych, which borders with Poland, has sheltered 415 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in its various institutions.
This past summer, 60 IDPs were being sheltered at The Samaritan, the eparchy’s retreat house, where they received daily meals, hygiene products and medicine.
The eparchy’s pastoral rehabilitation center, Oranta, was sheltering 250 women and children. Though the center provides them with food, clothes and other necessities, one of its primary goals is to assist children through the trauma of war with counseling, specialists and educators.
Another 25 people — 10 mothers and 15 children — were being sheltered at a home previously reserved for monastic vocations in the village of Nadyby.
Among CNEWA’s efforts in Ukraine, the agency has supported the eparchy’s work to house displaced Ukrainians with special needs.
Listen to these people’s stories and learn about the eparchy’s CNEWA-funded work to provide them with the humanitarian and spiritual support they need in the video below.