Behind the Scenes: 10 Takeaways from Poland
I spent several days in different parts of Poland, covering volunteers from Arizona helping Ukrainian refugees. These are a few of the things which surprised me on our trip.
It’s all grassroots volunteers.
I expected to find the UN and the Red Cross and other multi-national NGOs handling the humanitarian crisis and the three million refugees who’ve fled from Ukraine into Poland. While UNICEF had a tent setup to help people at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland, we found: the aid provided is nearly entirely from volunteers.
It’s all very grassroots. World Central Kitchen is a huge operation, with kitchens setup across Ukraine and Poland. But they’re almost entirely staffed by volunteers. In Warsaw, we found local residents working side-by-side with volunteers from across Europe and the United States. The massive refugee center at the expo park is run by local teachers. In Krakow, we found families from Gilbert, Arizona, spearheading an operation to buy supplies for refugees.
Individual volunteers are having direct impacts on lives.Below, Christian Heil of Chandler, AZ, tells me he has no plans to leave his post at the World Central Kitchen in Warsaw.
2. 6 showers … 3,000+ people
The Polish government and people are doing what they can to find refugees temporary housing. Still, three thousand people are being housed in an expo park outside of Warsaw, which typically hosts conventions. The volunteers who run the place were excited to boost the number of laundry machines to 20 last week. But they’re still concerned about the shower situation. They have six showers, which often run out of hot water. Refugees have to sign up for a shower timeslot, and usually have to wait a day or two for their turn.
This photo shows one of the many rooms, full of cots. The bright lights never turn off. The white boxes in the far corner are showers.
3. The majority are children
Men ages 18-60 aren’t allowed to leave Ukraine, unless they have a special waiver or at least three children. It means the majority of refugees are children, along with their mothers. Each time we met a new family and tried to entertain the kids, I kept wondering when and if they’ll be able to see their dads again.
The large refugee center in Warsaw has a game room/gym, where kids of all ages gather to spend their days. This three-year-old, named Damir, was there with his grandmother.
4. World Central Kitchen’s impressive operation
The kitchen in Warsaw alone feeds up to 15,000 meals a day. They setup shop quickly under a series of tents right outside the central train station. In Ukraine, their operations have been bombed. Their staff and volunteers are relentless and proud, and working against the odds to bring hot meals to refugees.
5. The Ukrainian border
The small city of Medyka (population 3,000) has become a main border crossing for Ukrainian refugees. A park and parking lot transformed into a camp for aid agencies to welcome and assist people walking across the border seeking help. Walking across the border is fairly easy, but driving a vehicle across will take many hours, if not days.
We shot our stories, trying to stay out of their way.
6. Doctors face unique challenges
Doctors we met with are treating a variety of illnesses, often compounded by stress. Refugees are coming dehydrated and malnourished, since many have gone without proper nutrition for weeks. In Krakow, we were there as a mother and daughter from the besieged city of Mariupol arrived, pale and weak. They’d lived underground in a bunker for three weeks, before a neighbor risked their lives to drive them out.
Yulia’s husband stayed in Ukraine. She and 12-year-old Sofia have had limited contact with him.
7. Heartbreak over lost pets
Many refugees had no choice but to leave their pets behind. A few lucky ones made it out. We found a few dogs in the refugee center in Poland. The mother and daughter from Mariupol smuggled their cat out. And another family made it to Krakow with their cat … only to have the airline deny it boarding when they tried to fly to their new temporary home in Barcelona. A volunteer from Arizona took the cat, and drove it 10 hours to Frankfurt, Germany, where another person planned to pick it up and drive it into Spain.
This man rushed over to show us his cat, Sonja, who was a great comfort to him in the refugee center.
8. Many showed up to fight
Several of the volunteers we spoke to deliberately went from the United States to Poland, to cross the border into Ukraine to fight. For a variety of reasons, they abandoned those plans and found useful work as volunteers away from the frontlines.
This former police officer found other work, driving people and supplies across the border and around Poland and Ukraine. We’re profiling him later this week on TV.
9. Refugees are trying to return to Ukraine
At the border, I was surprised to see miles of cars lined up, waiting to drive into Ukraine. I understood the semi trucks, lined up to bring supplies into Ukraine, but I was confused by the passenger cars. Local officials say: it’s a lot of Ukrainians now trying to return home. For some, they’re going back to retrieve belongings or pets or other family members. Others seemed to have found life as a refugee abroad to be more difficult than life in war torn Ukraine.
As we drove out around sunset, the line of cars hadn’t budged from hours earlier.
10. Life is normal in Poland
I was constantly surprised to find life pretty close to normal across Poland. Across from the World Central Kitchen in Warsaw, commuters were catching buses downtown. In Rzeszow, the city closest to Ukraine, Saturday night crowds in the “old town” square were lively, filling restaurants and bars. The city of Krakow hosted a big race, and its streets were full of Sunday shoppers. While Poland now has nearly three million temporary residents from Ukraine, its permanent citizens are carrying on with normal life.
These are photos of Rzeszow and Warsaw.
If you are interested in my travel adventures, check out my travel blog Jared’s Detours.