The Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary has opened WeCare centres, places where people in Ukraine can receive both humanitarian aid and trauma counselling.

Slavik Pyzh, president of the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary, with the help of Clay Barnes, a trauma specialist who travelled to Ukraine, trained a group of thirty volunteers serving at the six WeCare Centers.

Barnes said the idea going forward is that these men and women will be onsite at the centres and offer basic trauma triage to those who come through the doors.

“They know they’re not trauma counsellors,” he noted. “They know some people they work with will be well beyond their capacity to help, and that’s where we’re going to be a resource for them, both via ‘telehealth’ and in person.”

Barnes, spiritual director and Christian life coach at Carmel Baptist Church’s counselling centre in Matthews, North Carolina, said he plans to take teams of professional counsellors to Ukraine monthly beginning in January.

He welcomes counsellors interested in serving at WeCare Centers and providing more training for trauma helpers.

Pyzh said, “Our work right now is much more valuable than a year ago because the number of leaders has tremendously decreased,” Pyzh said, “and the number of opportunities has tremendously increased.”

He continued, “Even through these WeCare centres we already planted two churches, in spite of everything we have in Ukraine, we do have people who believe in God’s calling.”

The seminary didn’t start the centres from scratch, it identified places where students and graduates already were meeting needs and came alongside to offer financial resources and training.

The help of churches, organizations and individuals who give financially through the Ukraine Partnership Foundation is “critical” in the effort, Pyzh said.

Also sometime this year, the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary (UBTS) announced it will not require students to pay this year’s tuition.

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