Experiences in a Humanitarian Aid Centre in Poland, by Alex Weld
I spent nine days helping at the Humanitarian Aid Centre in Przemysl with the charity Love Bristol, and I’d like to give you a bit of a view of what it is like, and what happens there.
I’d like to say firstly, that we were not allowed to take photos of refugees without their permission, so my photos were taken either when an area was empty, or with the subjects permission.
The centre is a large decommissioned shopping centre, which includes an ex-Tesco Superstore. When first arriving it seems absolutely chaotic, but after a while one starts to appreciate the incredible organization and planning that goes in to an operation like this. All the shops have been re-purposed, many of them containing camp beds for people. The Refugees are brought to this centre by bus from the border, registered, and spend their first night in room 13, which is the ex-Tesco. When they arrive, they are mostly dazed, and shocked, they have no tears left. Room 13 can sleep 500 people. They bring luggage, but also animals, cats and dogs mostly, but we had a couple of cockatiels, and there were rabbits and guinea pigs, and they all go in to room 13.
In this picture a volunteer is sanitizing the camp-beds.
This is a picture is of the room ready to receive refugees.
In the background on the left are areas for the disabled, elderly and sick, centre back is the linen storage and sorting area, and on the right is a clinic. This room is cleared out completely every day, all bedding removed, the floors cleaned, the beds put back and sanitized, and supplied with clean linen.
This is a picture of the concourse.
Around the shopping centre ex-shops are being used for a variety of purposes. There is a couple of medical clinics, there are areas for pet supplies, for baby equipment, there’s a children’s play and entertainment area, there’s a café, about which I will tell you more later. There were only four loos in the centre, but a long block of portaloos were outside. There are hundreds of volunteers, who have come from all round the world to help. They may be doing cleaning, or sorting bed linen, checking people in and out, translating, or, as in my case, greeting refugees who would like to travel to the UK. So around the concourse of the shopping centre tables were set up by many countries and refugees could choose which country they would like to go on to, and approach the relevant desk.
The children’s entertainment area is on the left, and room 13 is behind the wall on the right. This was taken very early in the morning. Later it would be packed with children playing, refugees trying to rest, volunteers, and animals. One of the heartening things I saw here was an U.S. soldier in full uniform (except the gun) playing chess with a boy of about six; there were many such glimpses of humanity. At the far end you may just be able to see the Union Jack, which was our desk.
AT the UK desk we would greet people, find a translator and have a chat about what would happen if they decided to go to the UK. They would complete a lengthy online application form, and we would use that to try to match them with a registered host in the UK. When a match was made we would then assist them with their visa application. The visa form is very detailed and only available in English, so it is not something that the average Ukrainian can do easily on their own. And then it was a waiting game. Most countries move their applicants on quickly, but a visa application to the UK can take three weeks or so, though there were signs that it was speeding up towards the end of my time there.
Pictures of our team at our desk: they include drivers, computer whizzes, and translators (plus me!).
Natalia, the woman in the white tabard, had come out from the UK with Russians for Ukraine, and did an amazing job with the translation. Malik in a yellow tabard was also a translator. Translators are probably the busiest people of all!
Whilst waiting the refugees were moved away from the centre, and looked after by the hospitality team, of which Rosie Butler was a member when she was out there. Refugees were placed in various locations, churches, office blocks, schools, hostels etc.
Below are pictures of some refugees in an office block.
The man who rented the office block was a Ukrainian Christian car dealer. He said that in January he started receiving visions from God telling him to go and rent a large office block in Poland, and that God would fill it. As a man who had no employees, apart from his wife, this was a big ask! But he stepped out in faith, and rented the office block, and, indeed, God has filled it. He has had over 200 refugees staying in his office block so far!
The refugees in Przemysl were mostly women and children, but there were some men, and there were elderly, and disabled people too. There were people travelling on their own, and others in large family groups. We heard horrific stories of suffering, and also of great resilience. In the last couple of days there was an increasing number of Romani families, and Muslim women in full burkha. These are probably the poorer people for whom it was harder and took longer to travel to safety.
But I’d like to tell you the story of one particular refugee. This is Mariia, an absolutely delightful young woman who had travelled to us alone.
She comes from a town called Irpin, about one and a half times the size of Fleet, but which had been bombed to destruction.
This is a picture of Mariia’s home in Irpin. She cried as she showed me this.
Mariia is an only child. Her Father was in hospital before the war started because he had been paralysed by diabetes. Her Mother would not leave her Father, but they had both urged their precious daughter to just GO. So she left them, travelled alone to us, knowing that there was a high likelihood that she would never see her parents again. But Mariia is a young woman of faith. She was sure that God had his hand on her and her family. She had three cats that she loved dearly, but had to leave them behind. She was travelling on to a host family in Belfast, and was delighted that they also had three cats, and she was sure that this was a sign from God that she was going to the right place for her, and that God had his hand on her. To see that Faith in spite of the suffering was a very powerful witness, and there were many other such cases.
God was present in the centre. This was a place of long days, and little time to do what needed to be done, but it was a place where, what I call, arrow prayers, were so useful. A moment when one sends up a quick sentence, or phrase, or even a word, to our Father, asking for help to know the right thing to say or to do, to bring comfort to somebody in their suffering, or to get something done that must be done, and it works, one feels that peace, and that inspiration descend on one, and things happen.
Now I’m going to tell you about the World Central Kitchen, which was feeding 2000 people a day, including ourselves, totally free of charge. The charity was set up by an American chef who was the Head Chef in a luxury hotel. The hotel was bought by Trump, and this chef decided that he could not, in all good conscience, work for Trump, so he resigned and set up this incredible organization instead.
They travel fast to places where natural disasters have taken place, earthquakes, volcanoes etc., or to war zones, refugee camps, and within twenty-four hours they have a fully-operational field kitchen set up and they produce hot meals, and drinks, sandwiches, cakes and fruit all day, at any time of day, and the volunteers running it were always invariably cheerful and friendly and chatty. And it’s just one example of the many organisations that come together to run a place like this.
And finally I would like to thank you all for the prayers that were covering me whilst I was away. It was very sustaining to know that that was happening, and it helped me to get through.
If any of you are thinking of travelling out to help, then do have a word with Rosie or myself. It’s not easy, but it really is so worthwhile.