The recent invasion of Russia in Ukraine has shown us how fragile peace can be and how fast the living situation of people living normal lives can change.
Since the start of this horrifying war in late February, 5.4 million people have fled Ukraine and an estimated 7.7 million people have been internally displaced. Many of them have already arrived in other European countries and YMCAs after losing their homes and livelihoods or are still in Ukraine fighting and fearing for their life everyday.
Last summer, the Taliban took over the government in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops, and have been in power ever since with devastating effect for women’s rights. This caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in addition to 3.4 million being already internally displaced and 2.2. living as refugees in neighbouring countries.
We know that you are working hard in local and national YMCAs to help in the best way possible and want to thank you for your efforts! The past two months have been full of coordinating transport, accommodations and gathering of resources and slowly we are moving towards more long-term refugee support as well.
To support the work you are doing, YMCA Europe is collecting resources from all national YMCAs to be shared and used in a common Refugee Library.
We invite you to make use of it and contribute if you have resources on your own. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have further suggestions or questions, or need additional support. The comment function of the document is enabled, so feel free to add your experiences and feedback to specific resources or regarding the Library in general within the document as well.
You can find the Document here
We wish you all the best and thank you again for the work you are doing to support all refugees!
There is also a WhatsApp Group that we created so that we can network and exchange info about the Refugee Library and Work. It would be great to bring together as many people as possible! You can join the group by clicking here or by scanning the QR code below.
* We are sending special thanks to Marta Huretska from YMCA Ukraine, and Jonathan van Varik and Janette van Kalkeren from YMCA Netherlands for contributing with their hard work to this library!
