The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) is a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization advancing human rights together with an international community of grassroots partners and advocates.
Watch this video to learn more about the UUSC.
The UUSC supports self-determination and defends the rights of people displaced due to climate, conflict or economic hardships; and we respond to humanitarian crises as partners with people whose access to aid is most limited.
Striving to center the voices of people most affected by injustice, UUSC creates eye-to-eye relationships with frontline grassroots movements across the world that support marginalized communities in determining their steps for the future.
Learn more about the UUSC’s initiatives, history, and resources at https://www.uusc.org/.
You may GIVE HERE by selecting “Give to Share-the-Plate 83032”. You may also mail checks to the church made out to Horizon UU Church with UUSC on the memo line any time during the month of May. If you choose to give directly via the UUSC’s website please indicate Horizon Unitarian Universalist Church as your congregation and drop a line to justice@horizonuu.org to let us know so that we can document our congregations participation. Thank you.
During any crisis, UUSC seeks to assist those who are left out of traditional relief efforts and those who were confronting injustice even before the crisis began. Right now, at the Hungarian and Polish borders, there are ongoing pushbacks of people of color and asylum seekers who have previously been displaced to Ukraine from other war-torn countries like Syria.
UUSC’s initial emergency response includes providing immediate funding to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) and the FemFund, two groups already on the ground working on equitable recovery for displaced people.
The first steps include:
Distributing humanitarian aid to women, people of color, and LGBTQI+ individuals who have fled Ukraine — including delivery of food, cooking supplies, batteries, generators, lamps, and other necessities for those arriving in Poland.
Providing free legal assistance, counseling, and plain-language information to those arriving in Hungary, enabling them to access their rights as asylum seekers.
Organizing support for grassroots groups who are fighting pushbacks of BIPOC migrants.
As this crisis continues to unfold, UUSC is listening to grassroots organizations on the frontlines and following their lead. The partners, HHC and FemFund, are best positioned to identify the needs of people on the move and will ensure UUSC’s response addresses both the most pressing short-term humanitarian needs and the future long-term rebuilding efforts.