The Austrian Evangelical Alliance recently organised an event in Vienna to honour Pete Malkin (United Kinhdom), Niku Gal (Romania) and Roman Scamoni (Austria), for their humanitarian work evacuating over a thousand Ukrainian people with disabilities and bring them to Germany and Austria.

On behalf of the Ukrainian government, Serhii and Natalie Blochuk, founders of the modern Agape Ukraine rehabilitation center near Lutsk in western Ukraine, presented them with the White Cross.

That award honours foreign citizens and people without citizenship, who have actively helped Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

Evacuation and long term stay

Just a few days after the outbreak of war, Malkin travelled to Ukraine in a van to bring people with disabilities to safety. That inspired the Disability Forum of the Austrian Evangelical Alliance to organise further evacuation trips.

The Agape Ukraine rehabilitation center became the hub for the rescue operations.

The Bolchuks reported up to 300 new arrivals per day during the evacuation operations in the first days of the war. The rescued people were taken by minibus via Poland to Germany and via Slovakia to Austria, organised by Malkin, Gal and Scamoni.

Scamoni's sister Julia, who part of one one of those trips, described the atmosphere as “oppressive. suffering, despair and fear were palpable everywhere”.

But the evacuation “was not the end of the story”, because they also had to find places that met the needs of the Ukrainian people with disabilities, which would “also be available in the long term”, explained Roman Scamoni.

“Refugees with disabilities are usually unable to return to their home countries quickly, because their facilities and support networks there have been destroyed. They now need longer-term support in Austria and Germany”, he added.