{"id":2847,"date":"2022-03-03T14:53:38","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T14:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/?p=2847"},"modified":"2022-03-03T14:53:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T14:53:40","slug":"poland-holds-out-helping-hand-to-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/index.php\/2022\/03\/03\/poland-holds-out-helping-hand-to-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland holds out helping hand to Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ukrain\u00adian refugees are flock\u00ading into Poland to seek shel\u00adter from the war. In inter\u00adviews with my Pol\u00adish rel\u00ada\u00adtives I learned that the Pol\u00adish pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion is extreme\u00adly wel\u00adcom\u00ading, even though there are some dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adties. What do Poles do to help Ukraini\u00adans and how do they feel about the whole situation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many peo\u00adple in Poland are dev\u00adas\u00adtat\u00aded by the sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtion across the bor\u00adder. I spoke to my grand\u00admoth\u00ader in Poland, who told me: \u201cI feel pity for the Ukrain\u00adian peo\u00adple. And I feel resent\u00adment and con\u00adtempt for Putin as the leader of the Rus\u00adsians who so aggres\u00adsive\u00adly attacked the sov\u00ader\u00adeign, inde\u00adpen\u00addent state of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poles are wel\u00adcom\u00ading the refugees flee\u00ading Ukraine. Mem\u00adbers of my fam\u00adi\u00adly in Poland are  mak\u00ading dona\u00adtions to help Ukraini\u00adans and some even wel\u00adcome them into their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poland\u2019s own his\u00adto\u00adry may explain the sym\u00adpa\u00adthet\u00adic reac\u00adtion of its peo\u00adple. Poland knows how it feels to be sit\u00adu\u00adat\u00aded between two great pow\u00aders with aggres\u00adsive ten\u00adden\u00adcies. The Ger\u00admans in WWII and the Rus\u00adsians in the Sovi\u00adet Union both were able to take con\u00adtrol of Poland in the past. But over the years, Poland has received help from oth\u00ader nations, and now they seem to be keen to do the same. More\u00adover, my rel\u00ada\u00adtive told me: \u201cI fear Putin might try to do the same to us as he is doing to the Ukrainians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The men\u00adtal state of many peo\u00adple has changed dras\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adly. My grand\u00admoth\u00ader told me: \u201cI am afraid of what the future might bring. I am sor\u00adry for Ukraini\u00adans and feel great con\u00adtempt for Putin.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only pos\u00adi\u00adtive change in my life\u201d, my oth\u00ader grand\u00admoth\u00ader says, \u201cis the real\u00adiza\u00adtion of how much good is left in people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Ukraini\u00adans final\u00adly cross the bor\u00adder, help is already wait\u00ading on the Pol\u00adish side. My grandmother\u2019s broth\u00ader, who lives close to the bor\u00adder, described the sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtion: \u201cThey are wel\u00adcomed with hot meals, cof\u00adfee, blan\u00adkets. Poles come from all over the coun\u00adtry to col\u00adlect Ukraini\u00adans and bring them to the city or to their homes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Pol\u00adish peo\u00adple accept refugees to their homes to live with them. <\/a>They get infor\u00adma\u00adtion on Face\u00adbook<\/a> that some\u00adone is look\u00ading for a place to stay. I spoke to the daugh\u00adter of a Pol\u00adish fam\u00adi\u00adly, Anna Kowal\u00ads\u00adka, who offered refuge to a woman with four chil\u00addren from Kiev. Anna is 17 years old and is a stu\u00addent in War\u00adsaw. She told me, \u201cMost of them are in a quite healthy phys\u00adi\u00adcal state but are men\u00adtal\u00adly drained. They did not bring many pos\u00adses\u00adsions since most of them packed in a hurry.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My grandmother\u2019s broth\u00ader also wel\u00adcomed a fam\u00adi\u00adly in his home. \u201cI am very hap\u00adpy to be able to help Ukraine in this way. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly the fam\u00adi\u00adly does not under\u00adstand any Pol\u00adish. It is dif\u00adfi\u00adcult to com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate only with ges\u00adtures and a few Ukrain\u00adian words known to me. But they are extreme\u00adly nice and grate\u00adful. They came all the way from Ivano-Frankivsk and are very tired. They rest a lot. In a few days their friends from Barcelona are com\u00ading to pick them up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poles are donat\u00ading huge amounts of mon\u00adey to foun\u00adda\u00adtions.<\/a> My grand\u00admoth\u00ader informed me: \u201cThere was a col\u00adlec\u00adtion in the church when peo\u00adple were leav\u00ading the ser\u00advice and altar servers were stand\u00ading with cans and peo\u00adple gave big mon\u00adey. There was no clat\u00adter of coins: peo\u00adple gave lots of paper mon\u00adey to help the Ukrainians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pol\u00adish TV orga\u00adnized con\u00adcerts and all income went to help Ukraini\u00adans. In mar\u00adkets you can find bas\u00adkets on dis\u00adplay. \u201cWhen you do your shop\u00adping, you do more of it, and then you donate flour, groats, but\u00adter, oil. Big lor\u00adries come and take them either to the bor\u00adder or to places near Kiev or Lvov,\u201d my grand\u00admoth\u00ader told me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My uncle, who lives in a city in Poland called Radom, owns a restau\u00adrant. Two of his best friends who work with him are orig\u00adi\u00adnal\u00adly from Ukraine but they have a Pol\u00adish pass\u00adport too. My uncle said that they have decid\u00aded to leave the coun\u00adtry and go fight for Ukraine. \u201cIt is ter\u00adri\u00adfy\u00ading to know that I might not see them again. We\u2019ve been work\u00ading togeth\u00ader for over five years and they have real\u00adly grown close to my heart. Their depar\u00adture was awful. See\u00ading my friends say good\u00adbye to their wives and chil\u00addren, know\u00ading they might nev\u00ader see them again, brought a feel\u00ading out of me that I can\u00adnot explain. Now they are off, fight\u00ading for their country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained to me that many Ukraini\u00adans who work in Poland have a low\u00ader salary than the aver\u00adage Pol\u00adish work\u00ader. He says: \u201cNow that men with Ukrain\u00adian descent leave to fight for Ukraine, their wives have to pro\u00advide mon\u00adey for the whole fam\u00adi\u00adly. I have decid\u00aded to still pay the salary of my Ukrain\u00adian employ\u00adees. This way I can sup\u00adport their fam\u00adi\u00adlies and make sure that if my friends ever come back, they will not have to start their lives from scratch. I know some employ\u00aders who are doing the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ukrain\u00adian refugees are flock\u00ading into Poland to seek shel\u00adter from the war. In inter\u00adviews with my Pol\u00adish rel\u00ada\u00adtives I learned that the Pol\u00adish pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion is extreme\u00adly wel\u00adcom\u00ading, even though there are some dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adties. What do Poles do to help Ukraini\u00adans and how do they feel about the whole sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtion? Many peo\u00adple in Poland are devastated\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2847"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2949,"href":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions\/2949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmiu.ch\/rgnews2022\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}