The participants of the Caritas Partners Meeting and the Charity Forum talked in Warsaw about helping Ukraine and Ukrainian war refugees. Silvia Sinibaldi, a director of Caritas Europa for international and humanitarian cooperation says that EUR 100 million has already been allocated to help Ukraine.

The three-day meeting was attended by over 50 delegates of organizations belonging to Caritas Europa and the Caritas Internationalis confederation from 25 countries. Among the guests there were representatives from the United States, Australia and South Korea.

“Due to the war, more than 7 million people left Ukraine and about 8 million left their apartments, which means that one in three Ukrainians had to leave their home. The destruction in Ukraine is estimated at USD 100 billion. Therefore, our help will last a long time”, announced director Sinibaldi.

She noted that Caritas operates in 160 countries around the world, including 46 countries in Europe, and the Caritas Europa network has already allocated 100 million to help Ukraine. She mentioned that the countries bordering Ukraine also implemented aid appeals that were backed by the Confederation, providing full funding.

Director of Caritas Polska, Fr. Dr Marcin Iżycki informed the participants that the value of the first appeal, which lasted two months, amounted to over PLN 5.3 million, i.e. over EUR 1.2 million. The collected funds were allocated to financial support for families and to running a cross-border hub for humanitarian transport. The second appeal was announced as part of the Charity Forum and was planned for over EUR 15 million, i.e. approximately PLN 70 million.

Martín Lettieri, a coordinator of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said that by December the plan to finance aid to refugees from Ukraine was 740 million. Over 60% of this amount has already been collected thanks to donors supporting Ukraine.

Lettieri estimated that regardless of the course of hostilities in December this year, Poland will host over 2 million war refugees from Ukraine. He stated that this number is high for any country.

The head of the Office for Foreigners, Jarosław Szajner, stated that Ukrainians are not threatened with homelessness or social exclusion in Poland. He informed that the government has prepared places for refugees who will need support in the event of another unannounced move by Putin or, for example, Belarus.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński order