Stories from Poland during the War in Ukraine

Alongside the war in Ukraine, we've had the opportunity to see a brighter side of humanity - people of different backgrounds coming together to help those in need. ASSIST has had a presence in Poland since 2011, and many of our ASSIST community members are on the front lines of the humanitarian aid efforts.

Joanna Martyni-Orenowicz P '11, P '15, Country Coordinator

"The situation is very tense. I delivered many goods to be distributed among those in need from Ukraine. The woman who used to care for my mother is Ukrainian. She now works for a different family, but we have stayed in touch. She is having very hard time as her son who was working in a Polish factory for 2 years decided to go back and fight for his country. I comfort her as much as I can and hope he survives in good shape. It is a nightmare for each and every mother."

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Lena Nowaczek, ASSIST '21, Kingswood Oxford School

"I go to an international school in Oxford so a lot of my friends are from Ukraine and Russia. Some of them have been delayed in returning after our term break because it was impossible to travel. They are not going home for the next break because there is nothing to go back to. There are people at our school whose fathers decided to stay in Ukraine to fight. As a community, we are trying to get involved but obviously nothing can alleviate their pain and fear caused by the situation. My parents in Poland have hosted 3 families from Ukraine so far. A lot of people came with nothing; no money, no clothes, no plans. It's been really hard for them to figure out what they are supposed to do now.

I also have friends who were volunteers on the Polish-Ukrainian border. They say that they weren't prepared for the mental challenges of this task. They helped as much as they could but after 3 days, they came back home because they couldn't stand seeing all these tragedies.

This war undermines values that we've been building for years. It's so hard to watch what's happening and I can't even imagine how people who are personally affected must feel. Let's be hopeful that peace will win soon."

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Ola Zolkowska, ASSIST '16, Wayland Academy

"I will never forget the day, that Thursday morning when I found out about the Russian attack on Ukraine. What might sound ridiculous, is that I found out about it from a meme. I haven't been following the media for some time as the over-saturation of the topics of the pandemic and other unpleasant news about the Polish government have not only made me sad but anxious so for some time I decided to unfollow all the media outlets and exchange them for puppy-content. 

When I saw the meme, I knew something really serious must have happened because the memes only appear sometime after the "big" events. This one appeared in the morning. I immediately went to the first article I could find online and I couldn't believe what I read, so I read and read and read and eventually was late for work.

That was one of the hardest days for me to focus on anything, it was so surreal for me to talk about the numbers, market shares, excel spreadsheets, while our Ukrainian neighbors were under attack. No one could focus on anything. Our work just seemed so pointless.

The next few days were only worse. At first we were in denial. We thought it was just a bad dream that we would wake up from the next day. But it continued, and it is happening to this day, in the 21st century. We still cannot comprehend that it's a war, real war. 

A week after this started, me and my friends went from denial to full mobilization, as more and more people in Ukraine started to realize it was really happening and started to come to Poland to seek asylum. In one weekend we organized tons of boxes of necessities needed at the border. Help was coming from everywhere once we started posting on Instagram. Polish instagram was fuming with posts on what is needed, where to deliver it, who is going to the border to transport it. It was like a big web of messages that only grew and grew each day - more posts about the help that is needed, more people looking for apartments, transportation, looking for their families, pets, everything. Instagram exploded with the kindness of people and willingness to help.

We were collecting everything from clothes to medicine to cages for animal transport, and bringing it to special checkpoints with big transport cars to bring it to the border. We also organized a group of 30 friends with cars to bring refugees from the border. With over 9 cars  in one weekend we transported over 2,000 people. We were on our phones constantly to check the available shelter locations, apartments, and families who were willing to welcome our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. We felt helpless as well, because being there on the border, seeing thousands of people staining in cold weather, mostly mothers with children, we wanted to help everyone, but we couldn't. However, there were more and more volunteers engaging each day and we all tried to do our best to help as many people as we could.  

We also organized a refugee temporary center in one of Warsaw's party clubs. We bought mattresses, sheets, and food. We were able to host 50 people each day who were waiting for allocations or for others to take them somewhere where it was possible. There were big families with children, including Afghan and Syrian men who were not accepted in other centers. One of the most touching moments I experienced was when an old man told me he hadn't showered in 2 weeks, and when I showed him a shower he started kissing my hands, and cried with gratitude. It was heartbreaking. 

It is so hard to summarize even one tenth of what has been happening lately, as everything still seems so unreal. We still cannot believe that such cruelty & violation of all human rights is possible, yet it is happening right next to us. It is just luck that it wasn't us, it could have been anyone. Ukrainians lost all their life belongings, all their savings, their homes in a blink of an eye and it could have been any one of us. So, we are helping each day as much as we can. It is so hard, but it is even harder on the refugees. People are still not mentally ready after the pandemic and they have to undergo another trauma. What changed is people are more united in Poland, more than ever.”