From the MPS Crisis Response Committee Chair, Alan Krohn, Ph.D.
UPDATE: 3/17/2022
To MPS and MPI Members,
The best updates on Apsa and IPA efforts regarding Ukraine can be found in Dr. Mark Smaller’s updates on the Apsa list serve. At this point it looks like the most important thing it is suggested we do is to donate to organizations the Crisis Response Committee and MPS has sent to you. In addition to those links Unicef is very involved in relief efforts as is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Through one of the links our European colleagues sent, I have tried to contact an organization in Poland about the possibility of us doing some virtual training of people dealing with refugees. I have not gotten a response to this as yet.
Making contact in the middle of a crisis with the right people is a challenge (this is very much like what happened in my first efforts in Sri Lanka after the tsunami). There was a Ukrainian expert on MSNBC (I didn’t see this myself) who said there was a need for psychologists in Poland. I am trying to track down this lead.
Any suggestions about what we can further be doing, please let me know.
I want to send a special thanks to Dr. Rebecca Mair who has been energetically working on these challenges.
Dr. Alan Krohn
Chair, MPS Crisis Response Committee
3/17/2022
Dear MPS/MPI Members:
We have received from Dr. Mark Smaller, Past President of APsaA (the American Psychoanalytic Association), an email asking us to coordinate with IPA (the International Psychoanalytic Association) to discuss what all of us can do to be of aid to Ukraine. I plan to call Mark today.
Right now, European colleagues have sent a list of organizations they recommend to send vital aid to Ukraine and asked us to let our members know how they can contact these organizations and donate. In addition, I am adding two more organizations I would recommend.
UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) link: https://donate.unhcr.org/int/en/ukraine-emergency
Their instructions for refugees https://bit.ly/3vA2SKx
Fundacja Ocalenie (Rescue Foundation) https://en.ocalenie.org.pl – helps refugees on the eastern border of Poland Belarus and now Ukraine
Polish Humanitarian Action https://www.pah.org.pl/en/. This is an organisation that has been helping people all over the world for many years. It is well organized and has procedures for how to do this effectively.
Recommended by Alan Krohn: Unicef (unicefusa.org) and World Central Kitchen (wck.org), a highly respected not-for-profit organization that provided emergency food to Haiti and elsewhere since 2010.
See also the IPA List of Agencies supporting Ukraine (https://www.ipa.world/IPA/en/News/Donation_Resources.aspx)
The Crisis Response Committee of MPS will keep you informed about what we might be able to do. We welcome recommendation/suggestions from you about how we might help.
THE UKRAINIAN PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIETY SENT OUT THIS LETTER, WHICH CONTAINS A LINK TO A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF WAYS TO HELP.
Dear colleagues,
We are Ukrainian analysts, members and candidates of Ukrainian Psychoanalytic Society, IPA study-group. Our country is now a target of an unprovoked and cruel Russian military aggression. You could see how thousands and thousands of people get injured by missile strikes, shelling, civilian infrastructure is being destroyed en mass, and this list goes on. We and our patients must think under real, not metaphorical; fire and survival became our first priority. The war destroys our practice, our cities, and lives.
We want to ask you for help. First of all, we ask you to express in direct open way your condemnation of and outrage at the Russian attack. We want all colleagues in the world to know our situation and to express their solidarity. We know that many in the West were under the influence of Russian propaganda, were blind, and some are still remain so. Please, try to share the information about our real situation to your colleagues, fellow citizens, and governments – about the desperate struggle of Ukrainian forces against the biggest army in world and approaching a humanitarian disaster for civilians.
If somebody would like to help us financially, we add the list of Ukrainian organizations which really need your support and the link to different recourses to understand and help our country now.
How can you help Ukraine – list of organizations: https://lnkd.in/eD37Tpgu
Yours sincerely,
UPS Board:
Alexandra Mirza, UPS President
Rostislav Gryvul
Anna Kravtsova