Since the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine on Thursday 24 February 2022, several Ukrainians, but also African migrants, have been trying to flee the country, while others, like those in Kiev, have taken refuge in the metros to protect themselves from the bombing and fighting. Faced with this crisis, the outcome of which is not yet known, movements and associations are initiating actions of support and solidarity towards the latter. Even in this situation, where solidarity is strongly desired, discrimination is already being created against black people who find themselves left out.
So how can we help those black people in Ukraine who have difficulty crossing the borders to escape the war like everyone else and who find themselves trapped and left behind?
This is the question that Place for Africa and the collective of migrant women’s organizations/associations in Germany are trying to answer. Meeting for the first time on 28 February 2022, several courses of action were defined together in order to help these people. Several sub-groups have been formed to help as they can. Actions to collect donations in kind, as well as financial donations, will be initiated to help the black/migrant population to have access to basic needs. Groups of volunteers have been formed to go on site to help with the distribution of relief kits or to assist in the evacuation of members of the black community and to help them find shelter. The collective has also set up a working group to manage the administrative management of letters of plea and request for support to be sent to several international organizations, associations and representatives of the Black communities in Ukraine and the sub-region as well as to embassies. A digital campaign of support will also be set up as well as a strategy to welcome the refugees if they manage to cross the border to Germany.
Place for Africa invites you, other organizations and initiatives of people of African descent to join this movement and to act together with all the people and representatives of the following organizations who attended the first meeting:
- Each One Team One e.V.
- AfricAvenir e. V.
- Bantu e V
- DPI Diaspora Policy Interaction
- ISD, Sources-d’Espoir e.V.
- African/Black Community (ABC)
- BLACK COMMUNITY FOUNDATION STG
- Die Urbane. Eine Hip-Hop Partei
- NARUD e.V.
- Netzwerk Migrantenorganisationen Brandenburg – NeMiB e.V.,
- Each One Teach One
- ISD Bund/Berlin
- Lawrence Oduro-Sarpong – AfricAvenir International e.V.
- Sozialdienst Gemeinschaftsunterkunft f. Geflüchtete
- Diaspora Policy Interaction & Netzwerk Migrantenorganisationen Brandenburg
- Landesverband NRW.
- Pan-African Women‘s Empowerment & Liberation Organization (PAWLO)
- PLACE FOR AFRICA
For Place for Africa, Nicole Afi Amoussou & Castello Zodo