26-33 and KHARPP
Including how to donate.
Beginning with some pieces of good news, if any news can be called ‘good’ in this context. The first is that somehow the protestations against the new ticket rules have worked. Tickets are now free for all women and children with Ukrainian documents, and men over 60 or those who can prove that they are disabled. It’s not perfect, especially for those who aren’t Ukrainian nationals, or men who have been able to come over because of their number of children, but it’s something. The frustrating thing is that we spent between us almost £8,000 on tickets during the week when they were not free for most. There’s no way of getting that money back, even though the system has been reverted.
So, the next piece of news. KHARPP, our project combining our work in Przemyśl and in Kharkiv, in collaboration with the MAD foundation, has launched. Please give generously, and enable gift aid. Our first shipment of several tonnes of food and medicine to Kharkiv should cross the border into Ukraine today.
The bad news is that numbers of refugees coming through Przemyśl are on the rise once again, and despite this the city has closed down several shelters in the city. The last two nights, we have left at 2am - leaving a hall full of people asleep sitting on the floor. Only mothers and small children are allowed to sleep at the station, or even to go into the waiting room. Sometimes exceptions are made, but yesterday I was refused entry when trying to find a place for a babushka who had escaped Mariupol to sit on a real chair for two hours until her train. The bureaucracy and meanness of the police who man these rooms will never fail to shock me. We have started going to a hotel opposite the stations and taking up all their empty rooms every day, to fill with people who are not eligible for the other rooms. Yesterday, this included a 17 year old girl, travelling with her 13 year old sister and 7 year old brother, who had come from Dnipro. I found them alone at the bus station in the middle of the night, with no money and no idea how to get to Berlin, where their mum was waiting for them. As well as putting them into a room, I booked them a direct bus which, as I write this, will have just left. I called their mum and spoke to her, explaining their route and their time of arrival etc. It terrifies me that if I hadn’t happened to be at the bus station when I was, someone with far less good intentions good have found them.
I implore every single person reading this not to think that the retreat from Kyiv means that the war is won. I spoke to one woman yesterday, and asked where she was from. ‘Nowhere,’ she replied. I asked her what she meant by that. ‘I was from Mariupol, but there is no Mariupol now’. Listening to people from other regions describe their experiences, this will be the case for much of the east of the country soon. This is why getting aid to Kharkiv in the coming weeks is so vital. We don’t know how long it will be possible to enter the city, and we need to ensure that our friends at the Kharkiv Aid Office have everything they need to prepare for a full siege.
I will only be in Poland for another two weeks, before I have to go back for the final term of my Masters. I will be back very soon after that though, once we have organised the visas necessitated by Brexit, and our aim is that work with KHARPP can be done remotely, supporting volunteers on the ground and the supply chains we already have set up going through into Kharkiv.
Thank you again, everyone, for your support, and please do look at our website for more information.
Slava Ukraini!
the delivery of food and drink to Kharkiv.
this child was originally refused entry to the mothers and children’s room, due to a bureaucratic measure only in place for one night, which stipulated that only under-5s could have a bed. She is 6. In the end, I simply carried her in, and placed her on a bed. What we have realised over the past month is that none of these people is confident enough that their rules are fair and legitimate to enforce them when push comes to shove.
we have rented out this warehouse space to store food and medicine later going to Kharkiv, as well as a place for deliveries of supples for Przemyśl (mostly suitcases, blankets, and powerbanks).