ICMC strengthens humanitarian outreach in Ukraine

By Thaddeus Jones

Making a "solidarity pilgrimage" the middle to the end of October, the Secretary General of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), Msgr. Robert Vitillo, travelled to Ukraine, marking his third visit since the beginning of the conflict. 

ICMC is focusing on the area of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) as a key contribution to supporting a wide-ranging humanitarian response and efforts that can offer immediate help lasting into the future.

The Catholic aid agency is partnering with both Greek Catholic and Latin Catholic dioceses in Ukraine to engage professional psychologists and related caregiving staff to offer psychological, emotional, and spiritual assistance to those affected by the conflict, including internally displaced people (IDPs), the elderly, people with disabilities, and children.

Msgr. Vitillo spoke to Vatican News in the following interview.

Q: What struck you most in your most recent visit to Ukraine?

First of all, the war continues and life continues. It's kind of a difficult feeling because you know war is going on around you and yet the local people have to continue with their own lives and routines as well. I guess what struck me the most this time around was as we rode through the country in even the most rural places that we rode through, you could see new Ukrainian flags that were in the cemeteries and you knew that they were marking the graves of  newly fallen military. And so that's really very, very powerful reminder to you that no matter how normal life looks in some of the cities, people are still dying. And then of course, in speaking with the people, the displaced people throughout the country, then you heard their pain, their loss, their worry, and their wonder if peace will ever return.  

Q: Are people there worried that interest is lessening because of other conflicts in the world?

It's a very big worry. I heard that from all of the bishops that I visited, that the donations coming in for their own programs have been lowered and they expressed many thanks to ICMC for remembering them and for also coming to show our own solidarity in person to them. Then many of the displaced people expressed the same kind of worries. I mean, they see social media, they hear the world news, and they also said, people are going to forget about us, and yet we're still in a situation of war and we need help.

Q: What's the priority of ICMC there at this time?

ICMC has made a priority of supporting the diocesan programs for mental health and psychosocial assistance. We have done some emergency assistance for special projects for them. We also were very much involved in putting together a container of needed medical equipment and medicines, for which we worked in collaboration with the Knights of Columbus, as well as with the Catholic Health Association of the United States and the Hospital Sisters Hospital System. But really the priority we've had for our own fundraising and our own direct support has been to support the bishops to be able to engage professional psychologists, social workers, and special education teachers, and special physical therapists to help the people who are dealing with physical, intellectual, and emotional challenges.

Q: So, this helps in the short term and the long term doesn't it?

Yes, I heard from many of the displaced people with whom I spoke that the kind of mental health care that they're receiving brings them hope. You know, they spoke about their depression, about their anxiety, their feelings of insecurity. Parents told me about children waking up in the middle of the night at any kind of soft noise. Such noise reminds the children of the explosions that they have faced in their own home villages or cities before they move to another part of the country. And even in the other parts of the country, they're still hearing bombings. So, the mental health work is really very, very helpful to them to bring some stability to their lives despite the ongoing suffering and losses that they feel. At the same time, also the bishops and many of the psychologists,  for whom ICMC is providing support for salaries, talk about their worry about the general impact of the situation of war now for two years and maybe for longer will have on society in general. And then also many of the spouses of the military talked about the emotional problems that the military have and their difficulties with expressing this and their difficulties with getting reintegrated into their own family lives. So, it's no doubt in my mind that the mental health support that ICMC is providing will also help to strengthen the whole social fabric of society and of the Church in Ukraine.

Q: What signs of hope do you see despite the lack of any clear sign of an end of the war soon?

Well, one thing that gives me hope every time I go to Ukraine is when I go to church and  I see the faith of the people and I think this is also a strength and a force that they have that makes them strong, that tells them that there is divine intervention that can provide peace in the future, but also that gives them strength during their present suffering. Also, I got a lot of hope out of the fact that ICMC has been supporting the training of seminarians and clergy on mental health issues. This is a very traditional society and so many people go first to the priest and they think that it's a spiritual problem they have. Sometimes it is, but the priests need to understand that there are factors that may cause severe emotional problems and they need to be able to refer the people with those emotional problems to professional mental health professionals. And so this also gave me a lot of hope. I witnessed a training session in the Greek Catholic Seminary of Lviv. And this is part of a series that ICMC has been supporting in every seminary in Ukraine. And I watched a young woman psychologist training the seminarians. And I watched how attentive they were and also how trusting they were to ask this woman psychologist questions and share some of the challenges that they were facing in their own lives, as well as in trying to give counseling to people. And so I think we'll have a stronger pastoral base in Ukraine that will also bring much strength to the parishes.

Q: If you were to make an appeal, what would you appeal for right now?

Well, first of all, I think it's for prayer. We know this is a very, very difficult situation, and efforts to bring about peace so far have not met with much success. But I also think that it's really important to continue our support for Ukraine, for the people of Ukraine, and especially to help them make sure that they could get the kind of mental health support, the kind of medical support that they need. I visited some of the hospitals, especially at the military hospital in Lviv. I saw so many young men and women military who have lost limbs, arms, legs, both. I think that we need to show our solidarity with them and be sure that we could support their treatment, both their physical treatment as well as their emotional treatment.

Q: What else did you discover during your visits?

Another visit that we made, this was a new type of visit for me. In the past, we visited many of the urban hospitals, but, this time, we also then reached out to visit two rural hospitals. And these were hospitals that received the help that we, ICMC, together with the Catholic Health Association of the United States and the Knights of Columbus, were able to bring to these hospitals. And the enthusiasm and the gratitude that was expressed to us there was overwhelming. And they showed us the kinds of equipment that they were trying to work with versus the equipment we were able to have delivered with donated equipment and medicines from the United States. And it was incredibly different. But we also worked primarily for those rural hospitals with Father Bilsky, who is a pastor in an area of eastern Ukraine, an area that gets bombed quite a bit. And in fact, the hospital next door to his church was bombed and it destroyed some of the church as well. Father Bilsyk has also converted his church on a daily basis into a kind of soup kitchen because so many of the people in his village have no power left, they have no way to be able to cook food. Father Bilsyk was on the phone with us directing us to this rural hospital and at one point as we closed one of those conversations, we said, we'll see you soon. And he said, yes, we'll see you soon as long as we're still alive. He said it in a humorous way, but also there was a great seriousness about that as well. And it helped me to appreciate the risks and the dangers that they face on an everyday basis.