POLAND (WHDH) — More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began just one month ago and many are stepping up to help those seeking safety.
7’s Adam Williams has just returned from the border where Poland meets Ukraine. There he spoke with people who have gone to extraordinary lengths to help refugees by opening up their own homes or helping get them to family and friends in other countries.
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Volunteers wearing bright yellow vests are among the mothers carrying their children through a grocery store turned shelter and they are there handing out food to those who need it most.
They have come from around the world to help in any way they can.
Volunteer David Hayden drove for five days from Ireland to Przemysl — a border town that sits about 10 miles away from the Ukrainian border.
“I came with a seven-seater car and a roof box because I came with the idea; I wanted to bring six people back,” he said.
Hayden is one of many who have traveled to Poland offering to take refugees to other countries so they can be with their loved ones abroad.
Angela Montero drove from Barcelona, Spain with three open seats in her car.
“Well, we have been three months watching on tv, all this disaster, so we decided three days ago to come here just to help and to offer our hands for everything,” she explained.
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Michael Busselen and his son traveled from San Francisco. They have been volunteering to drive refugees to other European destinations as well as delivering critical supplies to aid centers.
“We came and we helped three real families and their two cats get from the border to Berlin,” he said.
Busselen and his son are on their second trip transporting supplies from Germany to Poland and taking refugees back to the main train station in Berlin.
“They were crying. They all had terrible stories to tell about people that they knew who had been killed, videos to show us of their homes that had been destroyed,” he said.
It is a three-hour drive from the Ukrainian border to Krakow, yet thousands of refugees are pouring into the city. How long they will stay and where they will go next remains open-ended for many.
Frightened and unsure of where she should go, Williams spoke with a mother of five children who range in age from 6 months to 17-years-old. Yulia said it took her and her family a week and a half to get to Krakow. Their father is a Ukrainian serviceman who stayed back to defend their country.
In an act of true generosity, a Polish family opened their home to Yulia and her children despite being complete strangers. The homeowner said he does not feel like he is doing anything special. He said Yulia can stay as long as her family needs to.
Yulia was able to connect with that Polish family through a network of distant friends. For her, this chance meeting is destiny.
Even after traveling for ten days straight, she and her children remain in good spirits.
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