Author: RodrigoAssis

Invasion of Ukraine – One Year On

As today marks one year since the invasion of Ukraine began, our hearts are heavy as the violence continues to impact the lives of countless people. The loss of life, displacement, and destruction of homes and communities is an ongoing tragedy that cannot be ignored.
At All4Aid, our vision is seeing displaced people attaining life in all its fullness and this is our hope for the people of Ukraine. We stand with Ukraine today as we hope for peace and seek justice. Our thoughts and prayers are with Ukraine today.
Photo: Ukrainian national youth team of gymnastics arriving at All4Aid’s House of Grace in Bucharest, Romania.

Responding to Food Insecurity on Lesvos, Greece

This is what our team on Lesvos sees through the car window in the mornings as they arrive to work: a long line of people, mostly women and children, waiting for our centre to open at 8:00 am so that they are able to take a shower, use our laundry room, get clothes and hygiene items and, especially, collect food items.
A combination of factors, such as bad policies, food price inflation and the closure of some NGOs has left refugees on Lesvos in an even more difficult position. We are stepping in to do even more to support them, as well as those in Cyprus, Romania and Ukraine who also face food insecurity. For this, we urgently need your help!
We have the huge challenge of raising a total of 1.5 million euros for our programmes in 2023. Half of this ambitious goal will be allocated to the direct purchase of food items for distribution. The remainder is for running the other programmes, such as housing for Ukrainian refugees, showers, laundry, hygiene items, clothing, activities, etc.
Please make a special donation now or set up monthly giving to All4Aid to help us respond to these needs!

New Community Centre in Bucharest, Romania

Following much work and preparation during the month of January, we would like to announce that All4Aid will start managing another community centre next month, this time in a central location in Bucharest, Romania, in order to better serve the Ukrainian displaced people.

We have been providing accommodation in Romania, as well as sending shipments of food into Ukraine, since the beginning of the war. The new All4Aid Community Centre, located on the ground floor of the building, will allow us to serve a larger number of people, through our centre’s hospitality / activities area, FoodBank (donation of food) and Shop (donation of clothes). 

On the top floors of the Centre, we have capacity to comfortably and safely house 50 people. We will also continue to operate the House of Grace in Bucharest, thus having a total capacity to accommodate a total of 73 Ukrainians guests in our houses in Bucharest.  

Beds are being assembled and kitchenettes are being installed by our All4Aid team in Romania as we type this post! New Ukrainian guests should be moving into the accommodation in the next few days when the centre is up and running! 

We are really grateful for your continued prayer, encouragement and financial support as we make this strategic move in Romania and continue to work towards our vision of displaced people attaining life in all its fullness!

 

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International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. At All4Aid, we want to take this moment to stand in solidarity with women around the world in calling for the end of all forms of gender-based violence. Women and girls deserve to live in safety and without fear. This includes the nearly 50 million displaced women and girls worldwide.
Let’s all stand together with women today and everyday!

 

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Food to Ukraine – Parts 12 to 14

Our managing director – Rodrigo Assis da Silva – continued to document his trip to Ukraine. Together with the All4Aid team in Romania, he delivered our shipment of food and hygiene items to our two church partners in the Odessa Oblast region, Ukraine. They also enjoy a time of fellowship over a meal with our Ukrainian partners, to catch up with them and hear more about the needs as the winter approaches.

The Russians have been focusing their attacks on Ukraine’s electricity and water infrastructure. The two churches and the neighbourhood around them are already without electricity. The food distribution programme, nonetheless, continues, even in the dark, in the cold and under the rain! Truly inspirational work!
Rodrigo and the team are now safe and outside Ukrainian territory! But they did experience a tense moment on the way back. They left as a convoy, with the All4Aid vehicles following each other. At the first roadblock they encountered, the Ukrainian military asked them to turn off the headlights and drive slowly in the pitch dark for some kilometres. The region was at risk of Russian drone strikes!
At All4Aid we work professionally and hard to minimise risks and make sure that, as we meet needs, the benefit and impact we produce outweighs the risks we take. But no trip to a war affected country can be made 100% safe. Please continue to pray for our All4Aid team in Romania, as they make this trip to Ukraine nearly every week!

* We have asked Rodrigo to document this trip for us in more detail. This post is the last of a series of behind-the-scenes posts that Rodrigo has shared with insights on how the work is done and the situation in Ukraine.

Feel free to follow Rodrigo’s social media profiles for more:

 

 

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Food to Ukraine – Part 1

Our managing director – Rodrigo Assis da Silva – is right now together with our All4Aid team in Romania getting things ready in order to drive to Ukraine tomorrow morning with our regular shipment of Food! It will be a long journey, and they are bringing 9.000 EUR worth of food and hygiene items to two churches in Odessa Oblast which serve as distribution centres for the neighbourhood around them.

We have asked Rodrigo to document this trip for us in more detail. This post is the first of a series of behind-the-scenes posts that he will be sharing with insights on how the work is done and the situation in Ukraine.

Feel free to follow Rodrigo’s social media profiles for more:

 

 

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Spa Treatment on Lesvos

Foot washing, foot massage and foot exfoliation. Our pilot service providing spa treatments for women and girls over the Summer at the All4Aid Community Centre, on Lesvos, Greece, has been a tremendous success! We would love to continue to offer these services over the coming months and would greatly appreciate having more female volunteers!
Do you have the skills to do massage, hair cuts, nail polish or any other spa and beauty treatments or even just a heart to serve in any other capacity? Check the link below to see our volunteer opportunities. We would love to hear from you!

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New House for Ukrainian Refugees

Meet All4Aid’s House of Hope 2 in Bucharest, Romania!

As we continue to provide accommodation to ca. 80 Ukrainian refugees in different houses in and around Bucharest, the owner of the largest house we used needed the building back and asked if we could relocate. Thank God we quickly found another suitable house to rent! The new house is larger and more centrally located. So, this turned out to be a blessing to our team, who will have to travel less within the city to visit our houses as they support our Ukrainian guests.

Moving our guests – ca. 30 Roma-Ukrainians (one of the most vulnerable groups who fled Ukraine) – and all the furniture to the new house was not an easy task and took, literally, the whole day! Our All4Aid local team worked tirelessly alongside our Ukrainian adult guests on the move. The photo was taken at the end of the moving day.

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Special Activities for Children on Lesvos

Boys and girls love to visit our Community Centre on Lesvos, Greece, and every day many children come through our doors. They come together with their parents to collect food, clothes and hygiene items, to use our showers and laundry, or to simply have a nice time with tea and fellowship. Those are the regular services we offer. However, whenever possible, we also like to do something special for the children.

Offering music classes and times of singing, playing board games and cards, teaching English, hairstyling. The special activities we offer vary a lot and depend on the number of staff and volunteers we have on a particular month, as well as on their particular gifting and skills. But, as you can see, we have been collecting many special moments with the children this Summer!

 

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Groceries for Ukrainian Guests

Our All4Aid team serving at the Ukrainian Refugee Response in Bucharest, Romania, continues to be very busy! We are currently housing over 80 Ukrainian refugees who are accommodated in various All4Aid houses in and around Bucharest. One of the main tasks of our team is to take our Ukrainian guests for grocery shopping on a weekly basis.

We cover the costs for dry, staple food, as well as fresh food such as meat and vegetables. The Ukrainian guests create the shopping list, choose the items from the shelves in the supermarket and carry the goods back home (with the support of our team and our minibuses). They then organise themselves within each house to cook and prepare their own meals.

 

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