SOME OF MY BIGGEST CONCERNS FOR UKRANIANS:
SEX-TRAFFICKERS: Refugees are perfect targets for being tricked by sex-traffickers. It happens all the time. Women looking for security, food, or shelter for their children are particularly easy targets as they are desperate to help their children survive. Already, there are many people on the borders of Ukraine offering their “help” and “services” to Ukranian women and children and these people are only there to abduct them, abuse them, and trap them permanently. It’s important that we have lots of trusted organizations on the ground crowding out the bad/evil actors and that we support them.
CONCENTRATION CAMPS: So far, the Russians version of warfare in Ukraine has not been a 21st Century one, but a 20th Century one. So it’s not surprising that there are now reports of Ukranian citizens being rounded up to be sent to “work-camps” in Siberia. Concentration camps are an old tactic used very often in 19th and 20th Century warfare (and the Chinese are using them now while the world looks away). When we make sacrifices in our homes, towns, cities or countries to take in Ukranian refugees, we could be saving them from this kind of horrific re-location and torture. You’re temporary sacrifice could be saving a man, a woman, a child, and a family from death or a life of horrific abuse.
COMPASSION FATIGUE: It’s easy to get burnt out on the news or decide “I have my own problems here.” That’s a legitimate feeling, but there are times when we have to force ourselves to engage with the world far away. When we can’t just stay locked in our little bubbles in our own neighborhood. I believe this is a major turning point for the world. The very order of the post-Cold War era (which has been in a form of anarchy and disorder) is being decided at this moment. Regardless of whether you believe that or not, when a nation of 44 million people (that provides a lot of food to the rest of the countries of the world) suddenly empties out–it will affect us all. I think one thing every country has learned in the past 10 years is that our institutions, our civil society, and our democracies are extremely fragile. Any on of us could find ourselves in this exact same situation. It’s no longer unthinkable. We might suddenly lose everything because of a coup in our country, a war, an energy crisis, or an extreme weather event. Any one of us could be that person that has suddenly lost everything and is dependent on a neighbor’s generosity and humanity to survive. Don’t look away. Give and Sacrifice more than you think possible. And KNOW HOPE!