Refugee Highway Partnership

Since February 2022, Bread of Life has been actively participating in various forms of aid to Ukrainian refugees in Poland, from coordinating various actions to offering shelter. Various blogs here on the site have reported this.

But, actually we are still absolute beginners! Two years ago we were thrown into the deep end, and while learning we actually made quite a lot of mistakes. How do you help who in the best and most adequate way? Little did we know! Acute help was needed, so we offered! The whole of Poland opened itself to millions in an incredible way, but that also mistakes have been made in this wave of charity, well, everyone knows.

But what mistakes, and how could we do better? How can we be better prepared for everything that still might be coming?

Already for about 20 years Christian organizations worldwide, specialized in refugee aid, have been gathering yearly for a conference under the name “Refugee Highway Partnership”. This year, Warsaw was chosen as location, for which on behalf of Evangelical Poland I had the privilege to do some promotion to Polish evangelical churches and aid organizations.

The conference was inspiring, with very useful expertise from various sides how to provide help according to the principle of “tough love”. How to navigate between not getting ahead of yourself, not having your goodness abused, and to use your energy and resources there, where indeed the most necessary… It would have been great if we already had this knowledge in February and March 2022, but, better a bit late than never. Certainly in the realization that the war in Ukraine does not seem over for long…