Many are looking for ways to help ease the humanitarian crisis in the area. The Webster City Rotary Club has a very local and direct option they are sharing with the Rotarians around the state as well as with local residents wishing to help the humanitarian efforts.

Tim Bailey, son of Doug and Nancy Bailey, has been a missionary with Youth With A Mission in Sighisoara, Romania for the past 8 years. Along with his wife Caroline, the Baileys are involved full-time helping to coordinate the national YWAM relief in Urkraine and at Romanian border crossings. Volunteers with the organization are traveling back and forth across the border to provide relief services, deliver much- needed supplies to YWAM bases in Ukraine to provide food and care to those residents who remain. The group also provides escape funding, travel supplies and transportation to those trying to leave the country.

YWAM is also providing upwards of 600 meals a day to soldiers and residents in Ukraine, according to Tim Bailey. At the Romanian border, YWAM’s efforts involve finding transportation for refugees to get to family and friends in the interior of Romania, and finding housing for those who don’t have those connections.

Bailey spoke with the Daily Freeman-Journal Thursday afternoon via Skype and talked about the efforts to provide aid.

“We have multiple refugees staying in our town right now,” Bailey said. “We’re not even near the border but our church has 96 beds set up for those who need them. Their last group has left but they expect to have more arrive in a day or two.”

Bailey said most in Romania feel somewhat safe as the country is part of the European Union and NATO.

“Everyone knows we’re ok. The underlying concern in everyone’s mind seems to be ‘what if,'” he said.

Many in the area are concerned for Moldavia and the possibility that Russia may move into that country as well. Moldavia is completely landlocked between Ukraine and Romania.

“It has a very small population, but they also have regions controlled by Russian separatists,” he said. “We know many people who have left Moldavia already.”

Bailey said that a potential crisis for Romania would be all of the evacuees from Moldavia.

“The only place they could go would be Romania,” he said.

Bailey said that thousands of Romanian families have stepped up to offer shelter to refugees escaping Ukraine. Churches and organizations are working together to provide aid to those escaping the violence.

“From an outside perspective, Romania for a longtime has been a nation that receives help,” Bailey said. “In this very difficult situation, in a positive way, this is bringing a shift — we can be a help. We can take care of these refugees. To see that shift happening on a grand scale in this country is really encouraging.”

Bailey said monies from Webster City and from Carrollton, Georgia, where his wife’s family is from, have begun rolling in.

“Yesterday, we bought sleeping bags and sleeping mats, as well as $1,000 worth of medicine,” he said. Those supplies will be trucked to the border and transported to YWAM bases inside Ukraine.

“We have two large teams and two smaller teams in Ukraine. There is one team in Kyiv and another team outside of Kviv in the west,” he said. “We feed things into the west and the teams shuttle supplies further to the east and into the capital.”

“The teams in Ukraine are working 19 or 20 hours a day,” he said.

Bailey said the vans and trucks full of supplies travel into Ukraine on a weekly basis, but Bailey said the frequency is likely to pick up now that supply lines have been better established.

The vehicles delivering the supplies never return to Romania empty, Bailey said. They come back filled with people who are escaping the war.

Funds are also spent to provide necessities to refugees, many of whom are carrying their belongings in their arms as they cross the border. Bailey said his church provides bags for the travelers with a few snacks and toys.

He said the price of gas in Romania is about $7 per gallon, which makes the supply run to and from the border an expensive operation.

“And of course, that means the price of food has gone up as well,” he said.

“The other thing the money goes to is for the needs of the refugees in Romania. Food, clothing, bags or whatever they need. As time goes on, the other thing would be money for rent,” he said. “There are many that are moving west, but there are thousands who don’t know where they are going and they don’t know how long this will all last.”

The Webster City Rotary Club has created a fund to provide funds to YWAM’s aid efforts. The Rotary Board of Directors voted unanimously on Thursday to provide a $5,000 donation to that fund. That donation is being added to $25,000 already donated by four Webster City Rotary Club members. The club is also reaching out to other clubs across District 5970 in the northern part of Iowa to offer them the opportunity to make a contribution.

Donations will also be accepted from other churches, clubs, businesses and individuals looking for a way to help. Donations may be sent to Webster City Rotary Ukraine Fund, PO Box 265, Webster City, IA 50595.

Bailey offered his thanks to the many donors from his hometown. He said the funding that has been received already has exceeded his expectations. He became rather emotional as he spoke about the generosity he’s seen from Webster City and the surrounding area.

“I’m overwhelmed and very thankful,” he said. “But I’m not surprised, because Webster City is a wonderful place to have lived — with so many kind and generous people.”

To make a donation,

Send checks to:

Webster City Rotary Club

Ukraine Fund

PO Box 265

Webster City, IA 50595