SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Amid the conflict in Ukraine, a San Francisco based mostly non-profit is working to supply refugees from the LGBTQ group secure shelter in Poland and Romania, the place discrimination stays widespread. 

“All of those displaced refugees had been fleeing into nations that had been very homophobic,” stated Protected Place Worldwide founder Justin Hilton.

Protected Place Worldwide was based by Hilton in 2017.

“I used to be working in India and throughout Asia on girls and woman’s training and LGBTQ rights and was coming via Istanbul, and in one among my visits to Istanbul a trans particular person was murdered on the street. She was beheaded by a mob,” stated Hilton.

Shocked and horrified, Hilton says he started studying extra in regards to the plight of LGBTQ refugees fleeing persecution of their residence nations.                                                     

“They had been assembly the identical individuals in Istanbul that they had been escaping from of their residence nations,” stated Hilton.

Quickly after, he created Protected Place Worldwide, which offers LGBTQ devoted shelters, group facilities, and providers for refugees and asylum seekers in components of Asia, Africa and Europe. At present, the non-profit is on the bottom in Poland and Romania. Iryna Umantseva and her girlfriend Hannah Levashova are among the many a whole bunch of Ukrainian refugees that the non-profit has helped for the reason that conflict started. The couple fled Ukraine in late February through the second day of the Russian invasion.  

“My dad and mom and I actually hear the missiles, the explosions, and the air alarms, and we had been actually scared,” stated Umantseva.

With simply the garments on their backs, the couple boarded a crowded prepare to Poland, forsaking their dad and mom. Hannah’s dad and mom are actually within the Russian occupied area of Donetsk.

“I see the information, and I’m fairly scared about this, and that’s traumatic for me,” Levashova.

“There have been some bombs close to Hannah’s, and he or she doesn’t know anytime if it involves her mum or dad’s residence,” added Umantseva. 

Including to their stress initially, the fact of arriving in Poland, a rustic the place discrimination in opposition to the LGBTQ group stays widespread. That’s the place Protected Place was in a position to assist.

“The power to speak with them, and to speak to any individual who actually pleasant, makes us to really feel in additional secure area,” stated Umantseva.

The non-profit helps the couple make connections in Poland’s LGBTQ group, pay for an condominium, search for work, and obtain remedy.  

Iryna and Hannah say they don’t understand how lengthy they’ll be staying in Poland. They plan on donating a part of their salaries to the Ukrainian armed forces.