Operation Ukraine Humanitarian Mission

Day 2 & 3

May 3

Mihaela traveled from Bucharest to her second destination, Cluj-Napoca to visit family and to schedule interviews with organizations that are helping Ukrainian refugees. Mihaela coordinated with the Ukraine mission team the purchasing of food, toiletries, personal care and medical supplies which are stored in a donated warehouse. The team is also working on scheduling the vans needed to transport the donations to Ukraine.

city of dej

May 4

Mihaela interviewed Beni Faragau, pastor at Iris Baptist Church and a volunteer who served several weeks with logistics and hands on support hosting Ukrainian refugee families at the church intake center. Furthermore, Mihaela interviewed one Ukrainian female refugee who receives cancer treatment at the Oncology Hospital in Cluj-Napoca and is hosted at Casa Filip (Filip’s House) where she receives hot meals, clothing and case management assistance.

Mihaela traveled to the city of Dej where she will stay until Monday morning when she and the team will leave for Ukraine. She met with the House of Hope vice president and reviewed the list of donated items purchased so far and finalized the remaining items needed to be purchased.

The refugee crisis in Ukraine is far from over. There are many ways to help refugees in your neighborhood, from monetary support to volunteering your time. Support Ukrainian Refugees in Michigan.

Theme picker

 
Spring 2022

spring 2022 cover

Winter 2022

our hands cover winter 2022

Spring 2023

our hands cover spring 2023


2019

annual 2019

2020

impact report 2020

2021

impact report 2021


2017

quality report 2017

2018

quality report 2018

2019

quality report 2019


ripples june 2023

* Important Notice *

Earlier this year, Samaritas was under investigation by the state for allegations of abuse in our emergency shelter in Grand Rapids. We opened this shelter 26 months earlier for children from Central America crossing the border fleeing from horrible condition; we were asked to take in Afghan youth when there was no other place for them to go after the crisis in Afghanistan occurred. We accepted 19 youth in response to this request and our long-term commitment to help youth to the greatest extent possible at the time of their greatest need. Samaritas was one of several similar emergency shelters across the country asked to take in these refugee youth.

Due to the severe level of trauma they had endured, many of them required intensive therapy and counseling. As a result of the growing concern we had for the depth and breadth of those needs of the youth and the safety of our team, we made the decision to work with our referring partners to move the youth to other programs where they could access the higher level of trauma-informed care, supervision, and medical attention that they required. Due to state and federal oversight of our programs, we are unable to share specific details of the investigation but we were cleared of any abuse allegations by the state and all youth were transferred to appropriate residential placements where they could receive the care they needed. Samaritas continues to be a state and federal leader in refugee resettlement, including refugee foster care.

MEDIA INQUIRIES

Please Contact:
Joe DiBenedetto
Lambert & Co.
(516) 637-0597

Matt Friedman
Tanner Friedman Strategic Communications
(248) 762-1430