Ukrainians in Diaspora #1
Visiting Refugees in Diaspora in Lithuania
By Tom Boone
Associate Director for Mission
The Outreach Foundation’s team visiting relief partners for the Russian war in Ukraine arrived after several travel delays on Thursday, June 9. Our team consists of 15 wonderful individuals from across the U.S. including Jack Baca (The Outreach Foundation board chair), Tom and Joy Boone, Noura Eid, Jill Gilbert, Bill Goff, Spence Maners, Josh Montoya, Susan Montoya, Andrei Motta, Lisa Quinones, Matt Rejmaniak, Sam Waitt, Jim and Sheryl Wood.
This morning we took a four-hour drive from Vilnius to Klaipeda where we visited LCC International University. LCC was established in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. From its roots as a Christian college to give Lithuanian students a liberal arts degree in English, LCC has grown to a student body of over 600 students, from 54 countries, with EU accreditation. LCC has an impressive presence in this region, providing students with an opportunity to experience quality education, up to the master’s level, in a truly intercultural context – only 15% of the students now come from Lithuania. The impact LCC makes upon the students is significant and is truly life-transforming.
The highlight of this visit for us was eating pizza with several students who are from the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Each of these students comes from a war-ravaged country and cannot return home or work in other countries. Each student had an incredible story to share with us. Here are three of the highlights.
Farida (Afghanistan)
Farida finally arrived at her college campus 3 semesters in, having weathered pandemic restrictions and the logistics of getting a Lithuanian student visa in Indonesia. She is originally from Afghanistan but her whole family, minority Christians, fled and are living in diaspora in Indonesia and Australia. She is studying communication, loves reading, and is a writer and poet. Through storytelling, she shares not just her experiences but captures those of many Afghanistan families experiencing intense loss in this time. You can read one example here: Sara.
Yulia (Ukraine)
Yulia, a rising junior, is majoring in International Relations, and through our conversation, we could see her enthusiasm for her classes, professors, and fellow students. Like the other students from Ukraine, she cannot go home this summer, so she is thankful to be able to stay at LCC with friends. Her mother is safe as of now in Ukraine, but her father is fighting on the front line, so, of course, she worries about him. Yulia loves Elon Musk for creating Starlink so that she can get a little relief when she gets a text from her dad. She spent a year in Mississippi as an exchange student and loves fried green tomatoes. Yulia with her positive nature was quite an inspiration to us!
Paul (Afghanistan, not pictured for security reasons)
Paul, a second-term senior, is majoring in business and has been grateful to experience such great Christian hospitality. He is Muslim. Our conversation quickly moved from academic interests to the reality of his situation. In Afghanistan, his father worked for a large Christian NGO. When the Taliban retook Afghanistan in 2021, they searched his family’s house and discovered the relationship his father had with this NGO. Lives in peril, they fled by foot and across many mountains to neighboring Pakistan. His father became ill and in April he died leaving Paul’s mother alone with his older brother and sister. They are unable to work because, in Pakistan, refugees from Afghanistan are not counted as having any worth. Furthermore, since he is from Afghanistan when he tries to find a job in Lithuania to support his family, potential employers often hang up on him while others never get back to him.
