Continuing to Bridge Borders: POLAND
Last week we provided insight into the ways we are helping Syrian Refugees in Lebanon and how you can help bridge borders and bring hope. This week’s focus is on our continued efforts to help Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
POLAND
His phone rang continuously.
Each call a request for help: money for food, a safe place for a Mother and her children to sleep, a car ride to a bus station.
This is the daily drum for our Ukrainian-born, Polish-residing partner, Pastor Igor Buben.
Since February 2022, Igor and his team at God’s Light Church (GLC) have tirelessly welcomed and cared for Ukrainian refugees in Lublin, Poland and displaced people within Ukraine.
Through their early services of shelters and food distribution, to current efforts of housing assistance and assimilation services, Igor and his team have helped thousands of Ukrainians. They have become masters at pivoting to meet the needs and harsh realities of war, while maintaining a hope-filled outlook towards the future.
And that’s where we found Igor and his team when we met with them in Warsaw in late September.
What is the current refugee situation in Poland?
Pastor Igor Buben (left) explains the current situation for Ukrainian refugees in Poland to IBC Co-Founder, Matt Filbeck
As Igor explained, people continue to flee the ongoing violence in Ukraine, heading west to Europe in search of safety and employment opportunity. But the once warm reception for Ukrainian refugees has cooled dramatically.
As of July 1, the Polish government ended state-funded programs that provided financial assistance for refugees and incentives for local businesses who aided refugees. Other changes to work requirements for non-citizens have all but eliminated the ability to secure legitimate work.
For organizations like Igor’s church, loss of state funding, combined with an increase in need from an already struggling refugee population and an overall decline in support from donors, has created austere operations. And, unfortunately, after cutting expenses and ending some services, the outlook is bleak.
Unless long-term funding is secured by year-end, Pastor Igor will be forced to close his church and cease all support services for Ukrainian refugees.
How you can help:
Through your donation, we will partner together to continue supporting Pastor Igor and the refugee services GLC is providing:
$2,500 – 1 month operating cost of GLC facility; enables them to continue services like Polish & English language classes for children & adults, and weekly daycare program for Ukrainian refugee children
$500 – 1 month transportation assistance for refugees; this covers gas for use of church van, direct assistance to refugees for bus fare or gas
$250 – housing assistance (rent, utilities) for refugee families with 3 or more children or families with a special needs child/children
$50 - grocery assistance for refugee families
