Melbourne, Australia
A “tsunami of suffering” is how Daniel Wordsworth, CEO of World Vision Australia, described what he saw when visiting the Romanian-Ukraine border region recently where he bore witness to the arrival of some of the more than three million people who have now fled Ukraine.
Following the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24th February, Wordsworth spent a week in the border region where he was based in the Romanian city of Siret.
“I saw firsthand the growing tsunami of suffering coming out of Ukraine…” he told Sight, noting that it was snowing the whole time he was there. “I was seeing this rising number of people and most of those were women and children because the men have to stay in Ukraine by law to fight…[I was] in this remote northern border area normally forgotten by the whole world suddenly [faced] with this tsunami of people…”
World Vision Australia CEO Daniel Wordsworth speaks to Kristina, from western Ukraine, who arrived in Romania with her eight-year-old daughter Sofia. On the same day they arrived in Romania, Kristina’s husband went in the opposite direction into Ukraine to fight. PICTURE: Courtesy of World Vision Australia.
Wordsworth was also able to travel into the west of Ukraine and described a visit to a hospital there.
“It was sheltering refugees that were sick [as well as] having its own patients. It had run out of medication, it had run out of its routine supplies, it had run out of food and so we were able to get in there and provide food and supplies and help them get equipped for this inflow.”
He said the aid being delivered to hospitals in Ukraine was part of the mult-pronged approach World Vision was taking to address the humanitarian crisis.
“[I]t’s ensuring that people have immediate provision of basic needs…” he said of those people arriving in Romania. “Often they’re just coming in with a backpack and they’re carrying their children, they have nothing else. So, [it’s about] where are they going to stay, where are they going to eat, do they have blankets, do they have the clothing they’re going to need to have?
“And then, secondly, how do they navigate this new reality, this new life that they’re in? Where are they going to end up? What do they say to their children? Thirdly, how do you deal with the impact and baggage of what they’re gone through mentally over the last seven days? And then…there are those who are stuck inside Ukraine and can’t cross the border, how do you care for them?…So we react to people moving into a place like Romania, we pro-actively try to get inside Ukraine to meet people who are going through a really terrible time.”
Wordsworth said World Vision was now in the middle of dramatically escalating its operations in countries such as Poland, Romania and Moldova in preparation for what may come.
“We are bringing in people that are focused on chld protection, on health, on logistics…We expect things to get much worse before they get better.”
Wordsworth welcomed the recent Australian Government that it will provide an additional $A30 million in emergency humanitarian assistance with a focus on protecting women, children, the elderly and disabled. Bringing Australia’s humanitarian aid to address the crisis to $A65 million, it includes $A10 million help address “education and critical protection needs for children, people living with a disability and those facing risks of gender-based violence” and will be administered through the Australian Humanitarian Partnership.
“We’re so happy that they’ve done that…” he said. “It’s a huge support for World Vision and all of the work that everybody is trying to do in the country.”
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Wordsworth said among the children that are particularly vulnerable as a result of the crisis are those who were living in orphanages.
“Some of the kids that we’ve been receiving in Romania are from those orphanages,” he said. “Very early on, there was an orphange in Kyiv that was destroyed by the bombing and we helped the Romanian Government take in around 50 kids. We’re expecting that number to grow up to 1,500.”
Ukrainian refugee Miroslava, nine, walks in front of World Vision’s safe play area in Siret, Romania. PICTURE: Courtesy of World Vision Australia
World Vision’s response also includes creating child-friendly spaces for those children who have come across the border with family members or care-givers.
“It’s a safe environment, a normalisinbg environment, it connects them with teachers, it gives their parents some time to look after things like getting shelter, getting food, finding out where they can go next – it buys time for that,” said Wordsworth. “And it also lets you get to know the child to see if there are any deeper issues.”
Wordsworth said people in countries like Australia – far removed geographically from the crisis – need not feel helpless but can take action by giving to appeals such as that launched by World Vision to help those caught up in the crisis, whether in Ukraine or a neighbouring nation.
Asked about what people could pray for, he said: “We need to pray for children; that they can get through this and can move into their life without harm. We need to pray that families can be reunited together…and thirdly, we just have to pray that God’s Kingdom comes now, in peace in that country and in all the countries around it.”
Australians wanting to help, can access World Vision Australia’s Ukraine crisis appeal at www.worldvision.com.au/global-issues/world-emergencies/ukraine-appeal.
