Over the last 2 weeks, volunteers of our partners Viva Kultura has been welcoming hundreds of families who fled Ukraine to Poland. These families are from some of the most impacted areas like Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kiev and a few from Lviv. These families arrived hungry, traumatised, after often risk filled long journeys from the Eastern part of Ukraine. Volunteers first arranged for hot meals (in many cases the first in many days for them) and found them places in Poland to rest, including rented temporary accommodation in Poland. Many decided to transit to other places in Europe, while others stayed on in Poland. In the last 2 weeks, our volunteers have arranged transit for some of these families to Dresden, refugee centre in Neuruppin (Germany), Spain, and resettlement with families they arranged for in Ireland, Sweden and some families are scheduled to leave for Cyprus by end of March. Children of families remaining in Poland have started attending school in Poland. Longer-term rent was paid by our partner organization for these families in these cases. In some case, our volunteers also arranged for psychological counselling. To view pictures of the work by Viva Kultura on the ground and follow the work, CLICK HERE

In the previous week, our volunteers on the ground received families who were able to flee the siege and destruction of Mariupol, via the humanitarian corridor. It took them 3 days to reach Poland. We served them their first hot safe meals and eating in peace. This included a 83 year old person. Some families after being well rested, refreshed and fed for a few days at homes rented and supported by our volunteers left for Czech Republic, where longer stays were arranged by our partner organization in Poland, Viva Kultura. For some families our volunteers have had to facilitate and arrange for multiple hospital visits in Poland, to address health issues. Some of these families has since left for Bavaria in Germany, this week. Our volunteers having been working non-stop with international contacts all over Europe to make these longer stays possible. In addition to all of the above work, our volunteers have been providing hot meals to refugees in downtown Warsaw, four times a week. For more pictures and video , CLICK HERE

Presently the flow of refugees across the border has reduced, but this may change with the impending situation in the East with the war. This may cause a new wave of refugees. Here are some of the pictures and stories from the last 2 weeks of work on the ground by our partners – Viva Kultura, in Poland

• Family from Dnipro, after three weeks with us, we found them a place in Germany.
• A mother with two sons, after a few days in our temporary home, we found them a place in Switzerland.
• The family from Mariupol, after two weeks with us, we found a place for them in Austria.
• Two families from Zaporizhia, after a few days in our home, now on their way to Austria.
• The family from Krematorsk, after twelve days in our temporary home, we found a place for them in Japan.
• Two women from Mikołajewo, after a short stay, rest and regeneration, we sent them to Denmark.