Bielany

 

Thanks for the many messages of support, I appreciate your kind comments but some make me feel uncomfortable. I am not anything special but just fortunate  to be able to help do what I know many of you would like to do. The real special people are those within Ukraine fighting for their beliefs, their nation and the very values which we as a society say we believe in and the Polish citizens opening their homes and hearts to take in those fleeing Ukraine. That’s why I am here - to offer support for the evacuation and care for the displaced and to be shoulder to shoulder with the Polish people.

 

So I am currently staying in Bielany which is the District Capital of Warsaw. It has its own administration led by an executive Mayor Grzegorz Pietruczuk who is young, inspiring, a real energiser. He has grasped the challenge of supporting displaced Ukranians and has already placed over 1000 families in his patch. For the last two days I have been working with a team of volunteers in the basement of the District Offices which has been turned into a collection and distribution centre. Truckloads of clothing, food, children’s toys and medicines are arriving all the time – on Saturday a large contribution from the Netherlands as well as local groups and individuals dropping things off. All has to be unloaded, sorted and repacked so that similar items are together for easier identification and distribution.  At times during the day the centre pauses to allow Ukrainian women and children accompanied by their host families, and in one case the local Catholic priest, to select the items they need. All have left their homes with virtually nothing and it is sobering to help them as they sift through  donated clothes to find the essentials they need. Most seem dazed, just going through the motions, stunned by what has happened and anxious about loved ones left behind. As I have experienced so many times before, most recently during COVID, when the ‘chips are down’ people rally round, come together, focus on what really matters - our shared humanity. I am enjoying being part of a team who have welcomed me so warmly that I have felt embarrassed by their kindness. They are going out of their way to make sure I am OK, helping me through language difficulties enabling me to be of use. 

So as I find my feet, I’m just getting stuck in - nothing glamorous, nothing heroic, just the simple pleasure of working with a great group of people for a common good. In so many ways the current displacement of people does not match what we have experienced in more recent conflicts. In the Balkans and Syria for example we quickly saw a need for the creation of camps for those displaced. At the moment those crossing the border are being embraced  by the countries they enter – hence the need for the work I am supporting in Bielany.  If we can get more people out of Ukraine safely then I would expect the second wave to have more complex needs as a result of being without food, water and under bombardment for days. I am so impressed with the open-hearts of the Polish people, but they and the other nations who are absorbing those displaced, cannot do this all themselves, and the EU and the UK have a moral duty to support – as a Brit here it is embarrassing to listen afar to the UK position –compassion and our common humanity has no borders.

I’m meeting with different elements of the emergency organisation this week to plan where I can best be used as the situation changes and later in the week I am likely to  move up to the Belarus border. Much will depend on whether safe evacuation corridors can be established and guaranteed. The ICRC has reported that the corridors negotiated with Russia for the evacuation from Mariupol were far from safe and in fact  being bombarded with munitions and also mined. Today we see the cynical Russian proposal to create corridors which lead to Belarus or Russia which is not an acceptable solution. Thanks again to Professor Natalia Dean of the University Akademia Wychowania, the Mayor of Bielany and to the Polish Wheelchair Rugby Federation who together are currently my umbilical cord!