For a month now, the life of the Salesian communities in Ukraine has been disrupted by the war, which marks every activity, including prayer. Fr Wocial goes from sorting the basic necessities received and redistributing them to the needy, to blessing the people fleeing, who queue up to receive it before leaving.

While even beyond the borders of their homeland, many Ukrainians who are physically safe continue to suffer for their martyred nation and their loved ones who are still there. Kilina, a refugee with her three children in Warsaw, still has the app that alerts her to the danger of active bombings. "When the air raid alarm sounds in Lviv, my phone rings too, so I quickly call my relatives to find out if they are okay and make sure they go down to the basement of the house to be safer. We feel safe, but we live 24 hours a day worrying about our families and our country," the woman told Alberto López, the "Misiones Salesianas" correspondent on location.

Also with them is Yarina, who is 16 years old and left Lviv with her mother the day the war started. "The best thing we can do to keep our minds off the war is to keep ourselves busy," explains the girl's mother, who is looking for a job in Poland, while her daughter connects daily with her school in Ukraine to try to keep everything as normal as possible. In fact, giving great proof of resilience, Yarina testifies, "Even if they bomb our schools they cannot destroy our culture and our desire to learn."

For all young - and not so young - refugees, the Salesian Family around the world is doing everything possible and more.

There are those who, far away physically, continue to offer economic aid: such as the World Council of the Association of Salesian Cooperators; the Vice Province of Papua New Guinea - Solomon Islands (PGS), which has allocated the Lenten collection to the relief of the Ukrainian population; the Province of Great Britain (GBR), which for the same cause has given a second donation, of double the amount of the first; or the commitment of the Salesian Mission Offices, such as "Missão Don Bosco" of Portugal, and "Por Los Jóvenes", of Argentina, each active with its own campaign.

There are those who do not tire of welcoming, such as the Province of the Czech Republic (CEP), which in a country that has already received about 213,000 refugees - out of a population of about 10 million inhabitants - offers its contribution by hosting over 200 people, half of whom are children. “We provide them with food, basic social counseling and accommodation in the rooms, since so far it has not been necessary to use gyms or halls,” reports Fr Vojtěch Sivek, Vicar and Provincial Delegate for Youth Ministry of CEP. “We also offer the activities of the oratories, with targeted programs for Ukrainian children, and we collaborate with teachers and psychologists of Ukrainian language and job search. As for collections, donations in cash and in kind are distributed through NGOs and personal contacts in Ukraine, Slovakia or Poland.”

And finally, there are those who offer to do the humble, simple, but necessary services to provide what is needed for the needy who have been received: transporting loads of humanitarian aid, loading and unloading boxes, cleaning the rooms and areas set up for the refugees...

“We try to keep our hopes up and prepare long-term assistance especially for those closest to the Salesians: children and young people,” says, finally, a volunteer from the Czech Republic.

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