Helpers at the Polish border
“You can cry on my shoulder”
Ukrainian refugees take the train in the small village of Medyka. Photo: Ervin Shulku/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Volunteers from all over the world help refugees at the Polish-Ukrainian border. Israeli rescuers treat traumatized children, Sikhs cook Indian food. A hug might help some.
Artur Chojnowski bakes crêpes. He pours the batter onto the gas-fired plate, flips the wafer-thin pancake, and places it on a paper plate.
Natalija Kostuschenko grabs it. “Yummy, it puts you in a better mood,” she says. A brief moment of joy for the 60-year-old from Kharkov, who fled the war in Ukraine with her daughter and grandson. “We sat in the bunker for ten days, everything was shaking.” Now she is behind the Medyka border crossing in Poland – and volunteers like Artur Chojnowski are trying to help the many refugees in need.
Almost 1.6 million refugees from Ukraine have arrived in Poland since the beginning of the war. The people in the neighboring country receive them with an overwhelming willingness to help. But international solidarity is also growing: a whole tent city has now sprung up at the border crossing in Medyka. Private individuals and citizens’ initiatives, but also aid organizations from all over the world take care of the refugees.
“For me it was just a very spontaneous decision,” says Artur Chojnowski about his idea with the crêpes. The 38-year-old native of Poland works in Amsterdam as a firefighter. He raised 8,000 euros through crowdfunding – enough for the crêpes campaign and a transport of relief supplies.
In front of the tent of the Israeli organization Saviors Without Borders, Nachman Revivo (41) checks medicines. The paramedic from Jerusalem says what is happening in Ukraine is stunning his entire team. “We are all Jews, we know that from our history – now the same thing again. Three million on the run. On the first day we all cried in the evening.”
Children traumatized by night bombs
Many refugees have hypothermia, says Revivo, while others have panic attacks and heart problems. Many of the children were traumatized by the nights of bombing and the crowding on the trains during the flight. “We try to distract them with toys and sweets. But sometimes we just hug her: you can cry on my shoulder.”
Davide Martello also relies on distraction. The street musician from Constance set up his black grand piano between the volunteer tents at the border crossing. He plays “Imagine” by John Lennon and “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen as mothers with children and heavy luggage pass him by. “I would like to welcome the refugees,” says the pianist, who has also played for the victims of the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley.
At the “India Food Truck” a cauldron of chickpea curry is steaming. Hardayal Singh from the United Sikhs organization has come from New York to coordinate the relief effort with 14 volunteers. “We feel the pain, the Sikhs have already been expelled,” says the 52-year-old software expert and tells how he had to leave India in 1984. The Sikh religious community has around 25 million followers worldwide – most of them live in the northern Indian province of Punjab.
Fabien Kriegel also wanders through the hustle and bustle behind the Medyka border crossing. He is part of an investigation team from the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB) Hessen and is supposed to find out what is needed here. “At the border crossings, everything is very coordinated: the distribution of the refugees to the initial contact points, registration and onward transport inland.” But the Polish state must first get an overview, the situation is growing from day to day, and every day there are more forces from the military, police and fire brigade. The ASB Hessen now wants to bring catering and care tents to the border. The helpers are preparing for a longer period of time – a maximum of three months.