Transportation and Accommodation
From the first week of war, our team has been helping in providing transportation and accommodation for refugees. We started our work in the PrzemyÅ›l Humanitarian Aid Center in March where we helped thousands of refugees with transportation across Europe. Some refugees already had family in certain countries and we made sure to coordinate transportation to get them safely all the way to their needed destination. Other refugees have never left their country before and were scared. We helped them with all the information about the different countries and programs available to Ukrainians fleeing war. With Lucy and Jacek speaking Ukrainian, we were able to connect to the families and make them more comfortable. In March, the shelter was at its highest capacity of 5,000 refugees. We had around 2,000 people come through the shelter a day. This required our team and the other volunteers to work fast and efficient. Lucy started helping the Germany team as a translator and soon saw a need for transportation to Netherland, Belgium, and Austria. She started a team and coordinated for those countries for two of the busiest months of that war. During this time Lucy and Jacek gained a large network of drivers throughout Europe. With reduction of funding and lower number of refugees leaving Ukraine, many people stopped helping with transportation. In July, the PrzemyÅ›l Humanitarian Aid Center stopped assisting with transportation and finding permanent accommodation. Now when refugees go to that shelter, they must buy their own food and find their own way to a train station. This is hard and dangerous for most people who do not speak the country’s language. It is especially hard on young mothers with little children. They could get lost or taken by someone along the way. We started the Hope Shelter to provide warm meals throughout the day as well as help with more permanent living arrangements. The work we did the first few months provided us with many verified organizations that will come to PrzemyÅ›l and help transport families to accommodations across Europe or other desired destination. All of this requires more funding to pay for the long 15-25 hour trips for gas across Europe and food/accommodation along the way. Even a small donation could make a life changing difference for many Ukrainian families.
