Marco Carvalho
The Congregation of Missionaries, Sons of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary is present in 69 countries and territories and its priests are helping Ukrainian mothers and their children to escape the war-ravaged nation. In Macau, the Claretians launched a fundraising campaign to help refugees seeking shelter in neighboring Poland.
The Claretian missions in Macau and Hong Kong launched earlier this month a fundraising campaign to help the thousands of Ukrainian citizens who have escaped the war-torn nation and have taken refuge in neighboring Poland. Since the beginning of the Russian onslaught on February 24th, more than two million Ukrainians have left their country. Of these, around 1.4 million have sought refuge in Polish territory, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
With missions both in Poland and in Ukraine, the Congregation of Missionaries, Sons of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary took to the streets of both countries since the very first Russian troops made their way into Ukraine in the early hours of February 24th. The Claretian missionaries are either helping to remove women and children from Ukraine or providing support to people crossing the border with Poland.
“This situation has led our confreres in Truskavets [city where the Claretian Mission in Ukraine is based], in addition to their normal parish work, to serve as drivers, transporting mothers with children to the Polish border; they organize food, clothing and medicine; sometimes they give a sum of money to those who have fled empty-handed from war-torn regions. The needs are growing, but the aid is getting better and better organized, both thanks to the Truskavets city authorities and aid from Poland and other countries,” the provincial superior of the Claretians in Poland, Father Piotr Bęza, wrote in a letter that was published on the website of the Sunday Examiner, the newspaper of the neighboring Diocese of Hong Kong. “We are aware that our capacity is limited, so we are pleased that many of you are asking how you can help. This makes us very happy and we already thank you sincerely for all your offers of help. We are aware that the current situation will worsen and probably continue for a long time, so we want to help in a structured and prudent way,” Father Bęza added.
The support offered on the ground by the Claretians deployed to Poland and Ukraine led the Claretian community in Macau and Hong Kong to launch, in the early days of March, a fundraising campaign to help those that were displaced by the war. In Macau, the Claretian missionaries opened two accounts at BNU – Banco Nacional Ultramarino – one in patacas (account number 9005755549) and another one in Hong Kong dollars (account number 9005755566) – to raise donations for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. The money collected will be used to help provide those affected by the conflict with first necessity items such as food, water and accommodation. The fundraising campaign is coordinated by Father Jijo Kandamkulathy, co-founder of the “Mother’s Meal Initiative.”
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