ACN sends aid to Kiev and Crimea

(Vatican Radio) Amidst the current political strife in Ukraine, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has announced its plan to send emergency care package to both Kiev and Crimean Peninsula. ACN will provide medical help and food for people recovering from the recent Maidan protests in Kiev. The organization intends to build for some 500 displaced poor families in Crimea a soup kitchen and supply basic provisions.

ACN will also provide help for the pastors as well as the military chaplains in the form of Mass kits, prayer books and travel assistance.

The National director of UK’s branch of the ACN, Neville Kyrke Smith, described ACN’s role in Ukraine as well as his hopes for this aid to assist in the stability and unity of the country.

The ACN aid programmes Kiev and the Crimean Peninsula are being channeled primarily through Bishop Jacek Pyl of Odessa-Simferopol, who is reaching out to both the Greek Catholic and Latin communities. In a recent statement made to ACN, he called for unity in the region: “Neither our social origin nor our religion separate us. We are all children of the same God, the one God, the Father of us all”, he said.

Listen to the report by Andrew Summerson: