Best Practices in Protestant Aid for Ukrainian Refugees: 2022

Authors

Mark R. Elliott

Abstract

Excerpt: "Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, dramatically accelerated Moscow’s military campaign against its southwestern neighbor which had begun in 2014. This unprovoked invasion managed to generate an equally dramatic displacement of Ukrainian civilians, some 13.5 million and counting.

"Paradoxically, the humanitarian response has been both phenomenal and inadequate. It has been phenomenal in its prodigious marshalling of resources and in its determination to alleviate enormous human suffering, calling forth impulses of generosity on a massive scale on the part of the UN, the EU, numerous individual European and North American governments, businesses, foundations, relief and development NGOs, churches, Christian ministries, and untold millions of individual good Samaritans within and without Ukraine. On the other hand, the humanitarian response has been inadequate primarily because so many millions were made homeless so quickly (in six months, such that even an unprecedented relief effort sometimes has fallen short).

"Documenting the final dimensions of the Ukrainian refugee relief effort obviously is impossible as long as Russian aggression continues. Given the size of the refugee population once hostilities cease, a comprehensive accounting of the humanitarian response will still be an ambitious undertaking. In the interim, the present study has attempted to introduce the scope of the relief effort undertaken by Protestant Christians. The focus has been on illustrations of best practices to be emulated and various types of malpractice to be avoided."

Recommended Citation

Elliott, Mark R. (2022) "Best Practices in Protestant Aid for Ukrainian Refugees: 2022," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 42 : Iss. 7 , Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2148.2378
Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol42/iss7/5