Imagine your lunch break being interrupted by bombs exploding in the next town over. Hearing of war coming closer on the news. Realizing that to remain safe, you and your family need to leave your home. Packing up your car and waiting in traffic for hours. Living in another family’s house for months, not knowing if you’ll ever make it back home.
This is the reality for millions of Ukrainian men, women, and children today. Two years after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United Nations Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, estimates that there are now 3.7 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Ukraine.
Many in eastern Ukraine fled west, now living as IDPs with Ukrainian host families. As the war continues, they’ve had to adjust to being far from home with no end date. It hasn’t been an easy road.
Yet even amid loss and adjusting to a new life, these families are displaying determination, community-mindedness, and generosity. And at HOPE International, we’re dedicated to walking with Ukraine’s men and women—as we have been since 1997.
Bringing savings groups to IDPs
Before the war, HOPE had mostly used the savings groups model to serve Ukraine’s marginalized Roma community. But two years into the war, we knew we’d need a unique solution to serve the needs of Ukrainians who’d been displaced.
The HOPE Ukraine team took a listening-first approach, asking IDPs about their experience and needs to discern how we could serve them. Surprisingly, food and shelter weren’t their primary concerns—it was fellowship they craved.
That’s when the team decided to introduce this community to savings groups. Savings groups would offer members a space to build new friendships, remember their own dignity, and be renewed by God’s Word. Once we adapted our core model to serve displaced members and trained HOPE Ukraine’s church partners to implement it, groups took off.
Today, about 250 IDPs are actively participating in HOPE Ukraine’s savings groups! Between IDP savings groups and Roma savings groups, a total of 38 new savings groups have formed since the start of the war.
We’re already seeing God at work in multiple ways!
A surprising use for savings
Early on, we noticed that groups made of IDP members ran differently than other savings groups we’ve seen. These groups were more relaxed with their record-keeping, and only saved for their own everyday needs occasionally. And while we’ve seen group members around the world frequently use savings to pay for everyday needs, IDP members only did so occasionally.
That’s when we noticed they were doing something entirely different: IDP members were using their savings to bless others.
One IDP savings group bought tablets for local children with hearing impairments. Another group bought a bulletproof vest for a member’s family (many Ukrainians are receiving summons to serve in the war). Other groups used their savings to pay members’ medical bills.
In a time when it could be so easy to hold possessions close and focus on their own needs, these incredible men and women have chosen to share what little they have with their communities.
“That might be a new breakthrough in microfinance,” says Andre Barkov, HOPE’s integrated strategy principal and previous managing director of HOPE Ukraine. “We all know about microcredit, micro-savings, micro-insurance—those are all familiar concepts. But what they pioneered was micro-charity.” Andre understands what it means to be displaced—he and his family were forced to flee to western Ukraine during the bombings in 2022, and they lived there for five months before relocating to the U.S.
Reflecting on the generosity of these savings groups, Andre shares, “I found myself realizing that the compassion and generosity that HOPE donors show when they invest in a farmer in Rwanda or a store owner in the Philippines is the same compassion and generosity fueling our IDP savings group members.”
Out of uncertainty, new disciples
On top of this, many IDPs are encountering Christ for the first time through savings groups!
“Most are former atheists who may never have heard the Gospel before,” Andre shares.
As they pray, worship, and study God’s Word through the Discovery Bible Study method each week, IDP group members are hearing about a God who loves them and gave His Son for them. As a result, seven people have chosen to follow Him and been baptized—praise God!
“But for the war, I would have never traveled to Boryslav [a city in western Ukraine]; I’d never have repented. God used this war to reach me, for I can learn to love Him and [have] invited Him into my life.”
Valery, IDP savings group member
Even amid the turmoil of war, we see God doing a new thing in Ukraine—and He’s just getting started.
Looking ahead
In the coming months, the HOPE Ukraine team will continue researching and designing more ways to serve internally displaced people as they adjust to life in western Ukraine.
“Join us in prayer,” says Andre. “We know we don’t have all the answers for how to move forward with [serving] this unique group. But let’s ask our God to open our eyes.”
In the meantime, HOPE Ukraine and our church partners continue to support other savings groups throughout the country and invest in Ukrainian churches and organizations. In 2023, we worked with the Chalmers Center to equip church pastors and leaders to start development projects in their communities. Since then, 16 groups have started projects serving women and children, families of soldiers, and more. Other church partners continue to support savings groups among the Roma community as well.
Since the start of the war, HOPE Ukraine has disbursed over $3.1M in loans to Ukrainian entrepreneurs and served 156 new clients. With this capital, the entrepreneurs we serve have bolstered their businesses and created 695 new jobs.
Please continue to pray with us for safety and provision for HOPE Ukraine’s staff and those we serve, for an end to the war, for peace in the country, and for Ukrainian families to find hope in Christ as they serve their communities.
For more stories and updates from Ukraine, watch this video from HOPE Ukraine’s managing director, learn some of the challenges that Ukraine’s business owners are facing, or read this reflection on wartime hope from Peter Greer.
Pictured in the header: a savings group of internally displaced women
