Friedensau Theological University (ThHF) is currently preparing to house a larger group of refugees in Möckern and on campus in the coming days. Friedensau is in contact with students, staff, and alumni of the Adventist partner university in Bucha (a suburb of Kiev) who have managed to escape to Western Ukraine and are now seeking refuge. About 40 people can be accommodated in Friedensau; the others, in the surrounding area. Three teachers with their children have arrived in Friedensau in the meantime.

Friedensau's offer is only part of a greater whole. The town of Möckern, to which Friedensau belongs, is taking in an as-yet-unspecified number of refugees from the war zone with immediate effect. The municipality, with the company Anhaltinische Geflügelspezialitäten GmbH and Friedensau Theological College, is putting together a supply of currently vacant flats, which are now being furnished and prepared for the families to move into them. With grants from donations, a coach bus can also be provided to take the refugees from the border to their destination. Interpreters have been hired to help with communication.

Free flats, not collective accommodation, are currently being equipped with furniture and the most necessary household goods. Donations from Friedensau residents, the AWW clothing store, and furniture from the university make up the initial equipment of the shelters. A donation account has been set up at the Friedensau University Foundation.

Together with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Advent Welfare Work (AWW) and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Germany (ADRA Deutschland e.V.), the working group "Together for Refugees", founded in 2015, was reactivated a few days ago. Tobias Koch, chancellor of the ThHF and member of the working group, summarises, "We want to contribute our competences and provide effective help for people who are fleeing the war in Ukraine."

In this working group, ADRA Deutschland e.V. offers to coordinate the various offers throughout Germany. For this purpose, there is a contact form on the ADRA website that can be used: https://adra.de/nothilfe-ukraine-formular/. Detailed information about the ADRA mission in Ukraine is available at https://adra.de/nothilfe-ukraine.

More About Friedensau

Friedensau is a village founded in 1899. On the site of a former water mill, an "industrial and missionary school", sanatorium, and home for the elderly were built in just a few years. From 1922 to 2001, Friedensau was an independent political municipality. Today, with its approximately 450 inhabitants, it is part of the administrative community of Möckern. Friedensau is home to the Theological College, where state-recognised bachelor's and master's degrees in Christian social work and theology can be completed on a full-time or part-time schedule.

For further information, visit www.thh-friedensau.de

This article was originally published on the Inter-European Division’s news site