Muslim and Christian Ukrainian Refugees Are Sheltering in This Orthodox Church

BUCHAREST, Romania - The day before his fifth birthday, Qamar Mahadi’s son started crying. He was scared. Qamar was only trying to give him a haircut – but the noise of the razor terrified him, reminding him of the sounds of war. “He can’t sleep, I can’t shave his hair,” Qamar said. “They are scared of everything.”

Qamar’s 5-year-old is one of seven children he has taken with him to Romania, along with his wife; two further children are adults now, with their own families and still in Ukraine. Originally from Sudan, he moved to Ukraine, married there and together he and his wife were wheat farmers for 30 years near Nicolayiv. Now they are refugees, living here in a former daycare centre attached to the Brâncuși Romanian Orthodox parish church.

“There are 19 people currently living here,” says Deacon Gheorghe Anghel. “We’ve had 40 children come through over the past few weeks.” He gestures to felt-tip drawings of Romanian and Ukrainian flags that have been pinned to the wall. “We try to fill their day. We’ve been to the natural history museum, the circus.” 

Valentina, a grandmother from Odesa, is also staying at the church, and smiles when the deacon brings up the circus. “They loved it! They were so happy.” 

Valentina is sitting at the end of the dining table next to two sisters, Ekaterina and Lara, none of whom gave their surnames, and they are talking quietly about the war. They are all Orthodox Christians. Ekaterina told VICE World News: “We feel very protected. We have more confidence that this situation will be solved because the people here, and the people in the kitchen, they are praying for us.” 

Ekaterina used to work in retail. Lara said “I was in the military, but I am a mother first.” Many of her colleagues resigned when the war broke out, she said, and the men have gone into hiding. “They don’t want to fight.”

Deacon Anghel says that spiritual assistance has played a large role in their refugee care at the church, on top of providing hot food, clothes and medical help. They have been given some money by the charity World Vision and are using the fund that they usually use to support the local community. They also have some support from the Romanian Orthodox Church, which has given more than €4 million to help refugees since the war started on 24th February. The Romanian Patriarchate has 4,300 volunteers working on its behalf and on top of offering translation, travel and medical services it has housed over 8,000 refugees. 

But Anghel is concerned. “If things get worse… we are in trouble,” he said, pointing towards piles of donations in the basement. “We will struggle to help no matter what.”

There are many other strains this church faces, including the lethargic visa systems of other countries. Qamar has siblings living in Australia, who have spent more than a month trying to get their brother and his family a flight there, to no avail. The fact that Australia doesn’t have an embassy in Bucharest hasn’t helped; Qamar said that as they only had a consulate, they told him to just keep asking his siblings to sort it out.

If he doesn’t get back to Australia in a few days, Qamar and his family will have an unusual Ramadan, surrounded by Orthodox clerics and iconography. 

But for the deacon, it will simply be another opportunity to make sure Qamar and his family feel safe there: “As before, we will help him with everything we can.”