Update from Sr Cristiana handling the Emergency appeal for help for refugees in Ukraine. Donations have exceeded over $100K! Thank you!
Through your donations IHM has sent over $100,000USD
Dear Friends of IHM,
Below is an updte from Sister Cristiana who is using the donations to move and help families to Spain, France, Holland, Germany and Poland.
Dear Don… I don’t know how to thank you. Also I have to apologize myself for not answering earlier. Believe me that I am very busy receiving people that come with help and also guiding others. I didn’t want to open your message before I had some time to write you in a proper way. I know you are not alone in all this. Please let me know all those that help you, they are doing a wonderful job. It is very hard to take pictures of the families here. They are people with great dignity that suddenly became poor. It’s hard for them to get pictured by a camera. First we have to explain them why we need the pictures. Please continue to pray the rosary. I trust Ukraine and all the people that are suffering in the hands of our Blessed loving Mother
Don, Sorry for my absence. I want to thank you and all those who have helped us. I want to thank you and those that help you to help us… to help others in these awful times… Thank you for the incredible help and generous Mercy from all of you… May God bless abundantly your families with great love among you and great peace and joy. The peace and joy that only He can give us. Actually, these months are full of challenges. Besides having to overcome my personal state of mind, I have had to support others... I believe that if I suffer from this war the Ukrainian sisters suffer much more.... I spend a lot of time consoling, advising... encouraging.... Further keeping our little school running online, with children who are in different parts of Europe, with parents who have lost their jobs and have nothing to pay... besides all this... we have had and still have A LOT OF WORK with the refugees and I continue helping refugees to escape, helping families to receive food, distributing costs. ... food... managing to get medicines from out of the country since the reserve stores had been bombed and there are medicines that people need such as for thyroid, high blood pressure, for the heart... medicines that they can't get by without... and yet... they are not available. We have helped to bring 3 vehicles to take food to the grey areas... I have a thousand adventures to tell you about and I don't have enough time write.... I must tell you: these are "bittersweet" times. It is sad to see the need of the people... but it is so comforting to see them crying of gratitude and blessing us for bringing them help... I promise to write more on Monday, but I didn't want to let one more day go without at least writing two lines. May God bless you, your children and your families very much. Have a beautiful Sunday and pray for all of us.
As you know IHM is an international 501C 3 charity helping mission people throughout the world who are in great need of support in the work they do helping the poor and disadvantaged.
At this time with the war that is going on in Ukraine, I am working with a catholic mission in Ukraine called the Mercy Homes.
The Mercy homes is an apostolate that is managed by the Servants of The Lord helping and providing residency for orphaned children, unwed abused women and pregnant women and struggling moms with children in Ukraine.
Because of the war in Ukraine, they were forced to move to a new location in western region of Ukraine where they are now helping the refugees from all over Ukraine who have been effected by the war and coming to them in need of help and support (see attached pictures).
I started sending them money directly to a Ukraine bank here in the states where they can take the money out in Ukraine via a debit card within 24 hours.
Here is their story which I had received from Sister Cristiana; “At the moment we are working together with people from Spain to send three more buses with refugees to Catalonia in the coming days. We are also in permanent contact with people in Austria, Holland and Germany who have offered to receive refugees and or send transport for their transfer.
Our work now and in the coming days/weeks: we help the arriving refugees to find a place (family houses in Dubove and other nearby villages) to sleep, feed them, buy them some medicine or clothes they may need and provide them with containment and any other kind of urgent help. When it is already determined to which country these people are going to go and by which means of transportation, we, using our vehicles, accompany them to the Hungarian-Ukrainian border crossing (Luzhanka border crossing) 87 miles from Dubove, but we could also start bringing refuges to the Polish border. It all depends on how the situation develops in the coming days and also on where the means of transportation will be”
The need for support is now and will become more desperate as they are expecting it to get much worse in the coming days as the war gets more intense all over Ukraine.
100% of any donations I receive for Ukraine will be sent within 24 hours of receipt directly to Sr Cristiana in Ukraine to help them with this terrible tragedy.
Please Donate
To send a donation please write a check to
International Help of Missionaries
64-09 77th Place
Middle Village, NY 11379
Please note on donation for UKRAINE support
God Bless you and Thank you!
Don Magnotta
IHM
President