I returned home April 14 with a deep sense of gratitude for having had the opportunity to go to Poland and for the support received from so many, whether financial, words of encouragement or prayers which I’m told were said.
My stay in Poland was a learning experience. For the first week or so, I was observing and doing a lot of listening; some of the ideas I initially came with had to be scrapped due to the realities of what was going on. The situation both in Ukraine and in Poland is quite complex and very fluid, so what may apply one day does not the next. “Going with the flow” became a theme, a very good one, as it allowed me to respond in the moment.
And so, first and foremost, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the funds I was able to share, along with donated clothing and toys. Originally, I thought I might be able to get back to all individually regarding where their dollars went, but that became impossible for me – perhaps a good accountant may have managed. Instead here is a synopsis of whom and how those dollars helped.
Kaniwola: $400 to the Ludwin Fire Department for fuel. Volunteer firemen had driven many miles out of their own pockets to pick up and drive refugees to where they had to go, put them up, etc. Gas there is about $6.50 a gallon; one of the volunteers I met earned about $750 a month! At a dinner with my hosts, I met the head of the department, who was very grateful.
— $2,000 in support to Ukrainian refugees living there: groceries, bicycles and sporting equipment for children, car repairs for a woman who said she prayed that her car would make it as she drove with her scared children to the Polish border, shoes (one boy was “swimming” in shoes he had been given), medicines (a stomach virus and a cold ran through the community and then several children came down with chicken pox) and Polish lessons. I left some funds with two trusted people for needs which may come up, and we set up a plan to have some of the women go shopping for special foods for Orthodox Easter coming up on April 24.
Medical supplies for Ukraine: $1,200, delivered as part of a bigger shipment this past week by Lukasz. I was to go with them, but there was a delay in arrival of the goods which did not happen until the day before my departure.
— $100 to a Lublin art gallery which had dedicated a day’s sales for Ukrainian artists.
— $50 to the restaurant Rosmaryn in support of their free lunches for Ukrainian refugees. “The rest of the story” of JCVIS’s involvement and its $1,300 fundraising effort will be in the next installment.
— $1,450 for a used diesel car which went to Ukraine. Regular fuel is very hard to come by in Ukraine, but diesel can be siphoned off from even destroyed vehicles. I heard later that most of Europe’s supply of used diesel cars is pretty much exhausted, having been driven to Ukraine!
— $700 to the couple I met and spent some time with in Zamosc; they along with others have been working “on adrenaline” since the start of the war, helping in so many ways: transportation, lodging, finding medical help for a newborn with heart issues, delivering supplies to Ukraine, translating and much more.
In the big scheme of things, the total may not seem like a lot. I am, however, reminded of the story about starfish. There are a few variations on the theme, but in essence it goes that a man is walking along a seashore when he sees a little boy picking up and throwing things into the water. He sees that they are starfish, which had been swept up onto the shore with the tide. The man questions the boy’s efforts, noting that there are too many of them for him to make a difference. As the boy throws back one more, he replies, “It makes a difference to this one.”
Thank you to all who have and are making a difference in whatever way you can. After I tie up a few loose ends, I hope to share several suggestions as to where further donations may best be directed.
Ilona Kwiecien is a Jaffrey resident whose parents were Polish refugees after World War II. Her last Army assignment before retiring in 1998 was as Army attaché in Kyiv for 2 1/2 years.