Elien, ESC volunteer from Belgium

One of the key values of the European Solidarity Corps is, obviously when you read the name again, solidarity. During my project we were already working on this topic when suddenly, on 24^th February 2022, the war in Ukraine broke out. And from that moment on, solidarity has taken on a whole new meaning. In what is next you can read about my experiences since the 24^th February in Krakow.

I have to be honest, before the war started I didn’t know a lot about the conflict that was already going on for a long time between Russia and Ukraine. However, since the outbreak of the war, I started reading, researching, asking and talking about the topic to understand what is going on about 250 km from where I’ve lived for the last eight months. During these eight months I learned a lot about Polish politics. Henceforth, more than ever before, Polish solidarity was, or is, at its peak. Putin did what no Polish politician or political party could have done before, reunite Poland in its solidarity for the Ukrainian refugees.

Straight on 24^th February at 19h a large crowd gathered for a protest in front of the Consulate General of Russia to show their antipathy with Putin’s move to invade Ukraine. I was there too, with my two younger sisters who were visiting me at the moment. It was the first, though not the last, time I got tears in my eyes. Since this big protest, daily there are some smaller protests in the city center. Last week for example, I got tears again. There were people re-enacting scenes from the war and telling their personal, heartbreaking stories. There was this man who wrote down that his sister was supposed to come to his wedding in Poland, unfortunately he now has to go back to Ukraine to go to her funeral. There were people lying on the wet and cold ground with blood everywhere. There was a girl who sang the anthem and another one who told us how she had to say goodbye to her parents. There were people carrying the Ukrainian flag, there were people crying. This has become daily practice in the city center of Krakow. Which is nothing compared to the daily practice in Ukraine.

Since the first day of the war, Polish people have started to collect goods. Clothes, medicines, food, toys, blankets, shoes, etc. During the first days collection points started popping up like mushrooms. With a gigantic chaos as a result. So many goods, not enough place. So many volunteers, not enough coordination over them. I remember I was helping this first week in one collection point for clothes. We were trying to sort the clothes in categories. Men, women, children. Jackets, trousers, t-shirts, shoes. This was already a very difficult task as there was little space for the amount of goods that came in. But an extra challenge was the fact that at the while we were sorting clothes, refugees came in searching for clothes. It became one mountain of clothes. There was this woman, who gave me tears again, because she asked me to help search for a really warm jacket for her two years old son because they were about to move to Norway.

One week after the outbreak of the war, Polish people started to organize themselves and their voluntary work in a better way. Plaza, a huge shopping mall that had to close its doors six months ago, was transformed into a collection point for clothes only. After some days of organizing, sorting clothes, etc., Szafa Dobra -or Good Wardrobe– opened its doors. It is now a big store with clothes for men, women and children, all sizes and all styles. As it is open only for refugees from Ukraine, everything is for free. Everything. There is no limit in the amount of clothes people can take. There is no judgement when people are desperately searching for something that fits. The shop is run only by volunteers, of whom I am one. I met people there who came all the way from Norway to volunteer for one week. There was a guy from Italy who came to Szafa Dobra to volunteer for about one month. There were five men from all over Europe doing a teambuilding with their company helping in this shop. There are inhabitants of Krakow volunteering, there are some Ukrainian refugees who became volunteers their selves and there are a lot of international people living in Krakow who are helping. Along with the volunteers of the European Solidarity Corps who are all working one day a week in this shop.

I have never seen so many clothes at once. There are literally mountains of clothes waiting to be sorted. I asked myself the question where all of this clothes were hidden before the war. They even had to stop the donations for some weeks, because it was too much. I have been volunteering there from the beginning and I saw how every week the organization became better and better. In my opinion it is incredible and so beautiful what is possible if some people put their hands together. Friends of mine have also helped in other places, in the central train station or at the Polish border with Ukraine. 

As part of my project I work in a school for children with special needs. The school as well is trying to help in different ways. The first days we were collecting goods. But after some weeks it became clear that Ukrainian children should have the possibility to go to school here. Which is really difficult to organize, as there are also a lot of Polish children on the waiting lists for the special schools. It became a voluntary service. After school has finished, teachers stay three hours longer to be with some Ukrainian children. Not only the children have here the time to play, learn and develop but it is also important for the parents. They get together, have some rest, share experiences, cry and laugh together. Spoiled by sweets made by the students or the teachers.

In the middle of March, I went myself to Warsaw. It was, to be honest, only for touristic reasons. In the moment we arrived in the main railway station of Krakow, I already felt guilty about this trip. The station was crowded, overcrowded. Shockingly crowded, after two years of pandemic. A crowd only of women, children and old men. It was the first time I really understood the meaning of “Ukraine bans male citizens aged 18 to 60 from leaving”. During the 3-hour train ride, my friends and I shared our seats with some children. We were twelve people in a cabin for eight, everybody packed in like sardines. Moreover, I don’t think that the situation improved while arriving in the biggest train station in the capital of Poland.

Poland have already received millions of refugees from Ukraine with open arms. (But dear readers, please don’t forget about the others refugees against whom Poland was building a wall last November.) The Ukrainian people were already the biggest minority in Poland before the war. Obviously a lot of people are thereby fleeing to their relatives here. I heard some via-via-stories, which I will share with you. One of my friends hosted for about three weeks two Ukrainian girls. One could speak English very well, the other one only spoke Ukrainian. They had my age, they were living a similar life as mine. It came so close but still it remained far for me. Another friend of me was supposed to host a Ukrainian women but she never made it to Krakow and they lost contact. The parents of a friend of mine live close to the Ukrainian border. They felt the whole house shake when Russia bombed a military base close to the border. On the 10h of April I myself experienced something. I was still sleeping when at 8:41 am the alarm sirens, deafeningly loud, could be heard. I woke up startled because I did not know what was happening. It immediately made me think of what I saw on the news for the last couple of weeks. I found out afterwards that they were held as part of training and exercises concerning alarm systems and to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the Smolensk plane crash, in which the former Polish president and 95 other people died. If I already was scared, I cannot imagine how, in my opinion, this exercise was kind of inappropriate given the amount of Ukrainian refugees in the city.

I feel sadness, anger, disbelief. I don’t understand how one man can cause so much grief, so much loss in so many ways, so much devastation. My heart and my thoughts are with the people in Ukraine, the soldiers, their families, the refugees and anyone who suffers in any way. May it stop as soon as possible.