Relief Center

Sunday March 13 Refugee relief center near border of Ukraine/Poland. They processed 28,000 refugees here yesterday.People coming across the border load onto buses and are brought to an old mall that they have turned into a refugee welcome center. When they arrive they are given food and clothes and medical help. Each refugee has to register and receive a wristband. Each volunteer driver has to register and receive a wristband. Unfortunately there are very bad people who take advantage of women and children, so they are trying to do their best tracking refugees and volunteer drivers making sure to keep them safe.

It is heartbreaking, humbling, overwhelming and heartwarming all rolled up in to one. Watching thousands of women and children arriving broken down, tired and worried they might not see their husband or fathers again. It is wonderful to see all the volunteers who have come from all over the world to assist in the relief effort. The refugees are organized and put into areas in the mall according to where they are trying to go. Today we were helping families get to Krakow.

So I walked around collecting families (mothers and children, because all men are required to stay in Ukraine and fight) who wanted a ride to Krakow. If they didn’t have a place to stay, I called colleagues at home and they booked and paid for hotel rooms. Some are staying days and some just overnight to catch a train in the morning. Most heart wrenching part of the day: a young mother with two small kids approaches me for a ride to Krakow, after we had filled our Vans. She got her husband on the phone and he pleaded with me to take his wife and children to safety. When I told him I would make sure we got them a ride, his pleadings turned to questions: “can I trust you?”, “can I trust you with my wife and children?”

I told him I was a family man and I was there because my heartached as I watched on the news fathers having to say goodbye to their families. I promised him I would get his family to a hotel for the night and make sure they were on a train to Berlin in the morning. After a long pause, he said: “I trust you, thank you…thank you!” At 11:00pm we started our 3 hour drive to Krakow with 10 women, 5 children, 4 dogs and a pet rat. At 2:30 am, as we dropped off the mother with her small children at the hotel, she gave me a big hug and thanked us each over and over. I might have been over emotional due to lack of sleep, but that one was heart wrenching.