Many organizations help queers from Ukraine - also in Germany
Among the numerous refugees from Ukraine are also many queers. They are also in need of help. In the meantime, special services have been set up at central locations, for example at the main train station in Berlin, so that queer refugees can be cared for and advised. Among other things, language barriers must of course be overcome here.
However, the number of people who have volunteered to assist is overwhelming. Among other things, sleeping places and other assistance are arranged in this way.
What organizations support incoming queers from Ukraine?
First of all: The list of organizations that have specialized in supporting Ukrainian queer refugees is long. Accordingly, only a short excerpt can be given here. However, it shows how versatile the offers of help already are and how much effort those in charge put into welcoming the victims of the war in Ukraine.
For example, the Gay Counseling Service Berlin has made it its mission to focus primarily on finding accommodations. The Allgemeine Homosexuelle Arbeitsgemeinschaft (General Homosexual Working Group) wants to show queers their local networking opportunities. At the same time, they also send help to Ukraine, reaching people who are either in the border region or still in the country.
Other organizations, such as Munich Kyiv Queer, have made it their task to show the people who want to help exactly how this can work. They focus on education and conversations and thus, in a way, also work against the helplessness that many people feel at the moment.
The feeling of doing "nothing" can be very demoralizing in this context. So it's all the better that there are now many organizations that offer appropriate services, so that everyone can find their own personal help option.
What is Queer Emergency Ukraine?
The Queer Emergency Aid Ukraine is a merger of several associations. The principle behind this kind of support is quickly explained: It is about bundling aid and coordinating everything better. Among other things, it is about more support for Ukrainian queers in the form of on-site assistance, but also about the classic collection of donations.
However, it is also somewhat reassuring(in a situation that is truly not reassuring) that there are now also corresponding offers of help in other countries that have focused not only on refugees in general, but also specifically on queer people. Many of them are in close contact with activists from Ukraine, so that an even better networked work becomes possible in the first place.
How the situation in Ukraine for queers (and of course for all others) will develop in the future is uncertain. However, on the basis of the aforementioned support services, people have found a possibility of refuge, on the basis of which further steps - often far away from home - can be further planned.
Several demos in small and large cities
In Germany and in other countries around the world, more and more people are taking to the streets against war. Especially in Russia itself, this is a dangerous undertaking that is not infrequently punished with violence, but also often with imprisonment.