During the first 90 days of the war in Ukraine, over 6million refugees fled to other nations, A further 7million were displaced internally, making this the largest movement of people in Europe since World War II.
In response, 72 Christian leaders from 22 European countries recently gathered in Krakow, Poland, to focus on the war and refugee crisis. The five countries that have received the most refugees (Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia) admitted they are overwhelmed and can no longer handle the ongoing flow of highly-traumatised women and children.
The Christian Ukrainian Collaboration, as the meeting was called, seeks to enable organisations, denominations and churches to collaborate in order to serve Ukrainian people. Although mission agencies and churches have responded individually, better collaboration is needed to handle this massive humanitarian crisis. In addition, most funding and energy has concentrated on short-term relief efforts, rather than longer-term needs.