Serving People with Disabilities Amid War in Ukraine
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“Right now in Ukraine, people do not count if it is spring or winter,” my friend Galyna told me, huddled in the darkness of her basement.
“We are not counting days of the week. We are counting days of war.”
Galyna, our Joni and Friends In-Country Coordinator in Ukraine described the surreal new reality that has struck Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24th. “I could have hardly imagined that one day I would wake up and see that a movie about World War had become my reality. The Ukrainian reality.”
Friends, fellow believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, I urge you to pray with me right here and now for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, and for our in-country partners who are rising up to be God’s hands and feet amid this terrible crisis.
“We are really shocked,” Galyna told me, “That Russian troops use kids, they use pregnant women, they use sick people or hospitals for sick children as targets for missiles. That’s terrible. And we do not want the Russian soldiers to manipulate with the people with disabilities, or to use them as shields so that our Ukrainian soldiers will not be able to protect themselves, and to defend our country.”
“At first, we were frightened, but then we saw our heroes step up to the plate against Russian aggression and it emboldened us all.”
– Galyna
Galyna is working hard with her team and within her network of churches to help us reach countless Ukrainians with disabilities. Sunday she and her team embarked on a dangerous 90-minute caravan to the Polish border to evacuate a total of 35 people including those with disabilities and their families.
“People with disabilities are always a vulnerable category of people. And if there is war, the people, for example with quadriplegia, if they live on the 9th floor, when there is this alarm that there can be a bombing, they do not physically have time to go downstairs, or somebody to take them downstairs.”
– Galyna
With many people desperate to flee Ukraine, Galyna and her team had to make hard choices about who to evacuate first. They started with the most vulnerable: people with quadriplegia or cerebral palsy who use wheelchairs, and four children, some with autism. “For the kids with autism,” said Galyna, “to hear the sound of sirens, or to hear the sound of bombings, causes panic. They’re afraid. Because the adults are afraid. So you can just imagine what the children with disabilities can feel.”
At the border, our partner in Poland received the families and is escorting them to greater safety in Germany or the Netherlands. We are currently working with our contacts to relocate these precious people into welcoming homes where they will have food, blankets, medical care, and urgently needed hospital supplies – things even as simple as catheters for urinary drainage.
“A lot of other people contacted us, and they also want to get to some safer place in the EU. So I think that was the first caravan but not the last one.”
– Galyna
Please join me in praying insistently and fervently for the safety of caravans to come, and for our partners shepherding people to safety.
Of course many vulnerable Ukrainians will have no opportunity to evacuate. Where there is war, people who have disabilities are often forgotten and abandoned. According to the European Disability Forum, there are 2.7 million people with disabilities registered in Ukraine. The plight these people face is dire and urgent.
I implore you to pray that for churches in the cities that are under attack. Ask God to move his people to action, that they will follow the call of Christ to go out into the streets and alleys and find the disabled and bring them in, as it says in Luke 14.
Friends, at this moment, rocket strikes and front-line skirmishes are occurring in cities across Ukraine. Please join me in praying for our in-country partners and Ukrainian Christians who are fearlessly doing the Lord’s work.
“Am I afraid? Yes. But the right decisions are always the most difficult ones.”
– Galyna
And more than fear, Galyna feels blessed to have been born in Ukraine. “I have to stay here,” she said. “Our people need encouragement, need the Gospel, need support right now. So may God help us as Christians to be this blessing and support for millions of other Ukrainians who are staying here and defending our country by doing whatever they can.”
I know from personal experience that we serve a God who cares for the afflicted.
And I know firsthand that your intercessions are making a difference. Galyna confirms it! As she said, “We always thank God that he blessed us with so many wonderful people from different parts of the world who pray for us and are willing to help us in every possible way! We are grateful to you from the bottom of our hearts! Please, keep praying for us! Only then do we have a chance to survive and endure no matter what.”
When I served on the U.S. State Department’s Disability Advisory Committee under Condoleeza Rice, we were well aware of the plight of people with disabilities amid major conflict. Their needs are forgotten. I ask you not to forget.
Pray with us as we partner in Ukraine to save more people with disabilities.
If you have a heart to join us, you can even post your comments to our Ukrainian partners on my Facebook page. You will also find updates on our activities to mobilize churches to locate disabled people sequestered behind boarded-up rooms, in apartment buildings, and in basements. Pray for the clarion call of Jesus Christ in Luke 14.
Now is the time, as never before, to go out, find Ukrainians with disabilities, and bring them to safety.
And beyond just immediate rescue and safety, join me in praying that our merciful Lord will pour out blessing amid this crisis as only he can do!
-Joni Eareckson Tada
Follow for Updates
You can track the latest prayer requests and updates from our Ukrainian partners by following Joni and Friends via Facebook and Instagram.
