In times of war, the most heartbreaking images are always of children suffering, their worlds shattered apart—even more so for orphans.
And in the war in Ukraine, orphans are caught up not only in the fighting—but in red tape, as we learn from Justin Hayslett, the founder and managing director of Legacy Refuge, an orphan-care ministry working in Ukraine for the last 5 years.
With orphans now scattered across Europe, some still in danger in Ukraine, and an effectively non-functioning government, Hayslett says all regular processes have shut down. That’s a frustrating situation for nearly 200 orphans and their U.S. families that already had adoptions arranged before the outbreak of war. Hayslett explains what he thinks people can do to help.