Russian Orthodox Charity Gathers Over $300,000 For Refugees From Ukraine - President

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2022) US-based Russian Orthodox charity fund received more than $300,00 in donations from believers from all over the world to support refugees and people in need in Ukraine, President of Fund for Assistance (FFA) for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) Mark Selawry told Sputnik.

"Since the beginning of the crisis, we have now received approximately $315,000. This is within the history of the Fund for Assistance the most successful campaign that we ever had," Selawry said.

The amount of the campaign demonstrates not only its success but the seriousness and love with which people approach the issue of supporting those in need, he added.

The fund already disbursed over $200,000 through the charities established by the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Onufrii and by ROCOR's Metropolitan Mark of Berlin and Germany.

"The use of the fund is quite various, and we cover many, many needs, not just housing, but things like medical supplies, legal service to aid with immigration, services to aid with integration in Germany, which would include things like language training," Selawry said.

In mid-April, the US Treasury issued a general license that authorizes transactions in support of humanitarian projects in Ukraine or Russia despite sanctions imposed on Moscow for its special military operation in Ukraine.

However, Selawry said that he is unaware whether the FFA can provide support to refugees who are settling in Russia.

"We do not yet know whether or not indeed, as a 501(c)(3) charity organization, we can send money to Russia," he added.

In the meantime, he noted, some of the disbursed funds went to the Donbas area.

"We saw from a report from our diocese in Germany that, yes, some of the funds were going to the Donetsk region. I do not, as of yet, have a detailed account of use of funds from Metropolitan Onufrii, and therefore, I do not know how much of those funds went to the Donbas area," he explained.

Selawry pointed out that the fund provides aid to all persons in need despite their political views.

"Our job is to help those who are suffering," he said. "Somebody who is displaced from home in Luhansk could be suffering as much as somebody who is displaced in Kiev."

The FFA will be providing aid to people in need in the Ukraine crisis as long as the situation remains difficult, Selawry promised.