The Department of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church released a report detailing the humanitarian aid that the Church had provided since the beginning of the Ukrainian War. The Church as an organization and as individual people has poured out an overwhelming amount of resources to help the refugees from the war, and the numbers in the translated report below are simply astounding. As it is machine translated, we apologize in advance for any errors.
Image: More than 20 tons of humanitarian aid collected in churches of Podolsk diocese
Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Ministry summary of the Church's assistance to refugees and affected civilians September 30, 2022.
Statistics
The Synodal Philanthropy Department has collected over 239 million rubles to help refugees and victims of the conflict zone.
The Synodal Department for Charity has allocated 226.1 million rubles to help refugees and affected civilians.
In Russia, the Church collected, purchased, and handed over 2,330 tons of humanitarian aid to refugees and affected civilians, of which over 1,410 tons were sent to the Donetsk, Lugansk, Gorlovka, Severodonetsk, Kharkov, Kherson, Zaporozhye and Berdyansk dioceses.
More than 710 tons of humanitarian aid to refugees in Moscow, border dioceses and civilians in the conflict zone were handed over from the Moscow Church Reception Center, organized by the Synodal Department for Philanthropy.
Refugees were placed in 57 church institutions in Russia, Germany, Great Britain, and Ukraine.
On September 29th, 97 people (69 families) turned to the Church headquarters for targeted assistance to refugees in Moscow. Seventy-four people received humanitarian aid. 78 people received help from private benefactors. Two people used the help of the volunteer car service. Six refugees received assistance with their citizenship application. 50 wards of the headquarters participated in free events (20 people visited the conservatory, 20 people - the zoo, 10 people - a concert). 113 refugee children study with 108 volunteer tutors. In the humanitarian center of the Orthodox service "Miloserdie" in Moscow 101 refugees received clothes assistance. Since March 10, the aid center has received a total of 23,370 appeals from refugees.
On September 30th 115 people (76 families) turned to the Church headquarters for help to refugees in Belgorod. A total of 162 people received help during the day. Five of them received legal advice.
On September 30, the humanitarian center in Simferopol provided assistance to 87 refugees. Since March, the center received a total of 10,951 appeals.
On September 29, the Church headquarters for refugee assistance in Voronezh received 165 people.
On September 29, the humanitarian center in Rostov-on-Don received 52 appeals from refugees. About 700 aid items were distributed. The total number of appeals since March was 12,132.
Assistance to the wounded and medical care
Hospital volunteers, trained by the Synodal Philanthropy Department in cooperation with St. Alexius Hospital, are rotationally assigned to the Military Clinical Hospital in Rostov-on-Don and the Intensive Care Hospital in Mariupol to care for the sick and wounded. A new group leaves weekly, the shift lasts 10 days. A group of volunteers in Mariupol consists of six to eight people. Two of them go to the Nursing Home for the Elderly and Disabled with Geriatric Ward 1 in Mariupol, which includes patients of the Intensive Care Hospital, who require long term care. The group to Rostov-on-Don is from one to three people. A group of 15 local care volunteers has also been formed and trained in Rostov-on-Don.
On September 29, one patient went to St. Alexius Hospital. Four patients were hospitalized. Ten patients were discharged, of whom three were sent back to Mariupol and Gorlovka, and one patient was transferred to a tuberculosis hospital. Thirty-two refugees are being treated in the hospital inpatient units. Of these, 29 are being treated at the Moscow hospital, and three more patients are being treated at a branch of the church hospital in Zhukovsky in the Moscow Region. A total of 718 patients have sought care since March 5, 77 patients were brought from the conflict zone, 770 outpatient consultations were conducted and 269 instrumental diagnoses were made. 196 patients underwent laboratory tests, 122 patients were treated as inpatients and have already been discharged.
Accommodation for refugees in church facilities and with the support of the Church
By September 30 the Church supported accommodation of refugees in the church shelter in the village of Manychskaya, a shelter in Voronezh diocese, the Iverskiy convent in Rostov diocese, Staritskiy Dormition monastery, and the branch of the Transfiguration church in the village of Yurkino in Tver diocese, Serafimo Sarovsky Monastery in Novomakarovo of the Borisoglebsk Diocese, Marfo-Mariinsky Monastery of the Belgorod Diocese, the Diocesan Center for Mothers and Children in Belgorod, the Kovalevsky Orphanage in the Kostroma Diocese, and the Diocesan Orphanage in Stavropol, "Crimean Home for Mothers" in the Diocese of Simferopol, the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra, the St. John the Baptist Monastery in the Diocese of Lugansk in Chuginka, the Sergievsky Women's Monastery in the Diocese of Gorlovka in Sergeevka, the Holy Trinity Brailovka Female Monastery, St. John the Theologian male monastery and Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in Vinnitsa diocese, Trinity Cathedral and Dormition Yeletsky monastery in Chernigov diocese, Galaikovsky Preobrazhensky monastery in Mogilev-Podol diocese, Banchensky monastery in Chernivtsi and Bukovina diocese, Cyril and Methodius Svalyava, St. Nicholas, Pokrovsky Rakoshinsky and Dormition Domboksky monasteries of Mukachevo diocese, Dormition Pochaev Lavra, Olshansky female monastery and Neshcherovsky Preobrazhensky monastery of Kyiv diocese, the Church of Martyr Tatiana in the village of Vygoda, St. Nicholas Church of Pervomaisky, the Pokrovsky skete in the village of Marinovka, Odessa diocese, the Archangel Michael and Panteleimon monasteries in Odessa diocese, Elisabeth Monastery and the Church of the Dormition in Kirovograd diocese, Gorodok, Derman, Belovsky and Goshchansky monasteries of Rivne diocese, Kiev Pechersk Lavra, Pokrovskaya Goloseevskaya hermitage, Vvedensky, Archangelo-Mikhailovsky Zverinetsky and Panteleimon monasteries in Kiev, Kiev Theological Academy and Seminary, Annunciation Church of Krasnograd, Vladimir Church in Kharkov, Svyato-Dukhov Church in Bogodukhov of the Kharkov diocese, Poltava Missionary Theological Seminary, Poltava Holy Cross Women's Monastery, Intercession Church in Dnepr, and Svyatogorsk Zimnya Women's Monastery of the Vladimir-Volynsk diocese. Also with the support of the Church, refugees are housed in Novocherkassk, Rostov diocese.
In the Berlin-German diocese, refugees were placed in the St. George's Monastery in Getschendorf, in the Church of the Sign in Ulm, in the parish house in Hamburg, and in the parish house of the Holy Trinity Church in Dortmund. In the Diocese of Sourozh, refugees were housed by the parish of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in a church house in Kidlington near Oxford.
Humanitarian aid
The Diocese of Lugansk distributed 5 tons of humanitarian aid from the Synodal Department for Philanthropy and the Diocese of Khanty-Mansiysk in Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Varvarovka, and Novaya Astrakhan.
150 food parcels were delivered to Zaporizhzhya Region by the humanitarian center of the Crimean Metropolitan Diocese.
For the feast of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the diocese of Odessa there will be held charity fairs to help refugees and the needy.
In Shakhta diocese for a month and a half (from August 14 to September 29) there were more than 7,000 refugee appeals for food, clothing, legal and psychological assistance. All in all since March we have received more than 19,000 refugees' appeals.
The diocese of Vyksa diocese received 24 appeals of refugees during the week.
Targeted Assistance
Two refugee families received clothes and children's winter shoes from the humanitarian center of the Orthodox "Miloserdiye" service in Moscow.
Other forms of aid
The Novokuznetsk Eparchy took part in organizing a trip for 48 children from Gorlovka to the village of Kostenkovo. The children were given a tour in the Church of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky.
To offer your help or to ask for help in an acute situation you can call the church social service hotline "Miloserdiye": 8 800 70-70-222.
You can help refugees and affected civilians by texting the word "Refugees" and the donation amount to 3443. For example: "Refugees 300".
To report what assistance your diocese provides to refugees and affected civilians, you can send an email to diaconia@patriarchia.ru (you must specify the subject of the letter: "Summary of the refugees").