A week ago, a charity from Bristol packed up two vans full of the city's donations and travelled to the Ukraine-Poland border to help those fleeing from the war.
LoveBristol, an organisation based in Stokes Croft, arranged for donations to be dropped off at a location on Gloucester Road for some five days. On Wednesday, March 9, a team made the journey over to the border, via the EuroTunnel, to distribute the donations.
They also used money raised online through their GoFundMe page to buy long-life food and other items in Poland, as a means of both helping the economy and getting food and essentials to those who need it most. When Bristol Live spoke to the team ahead of their journey last week, they also planned on picking up and transporting as many people as possible from the border to various places across Europe.
Read more: Bristol people travelling to Poland/Ukraine border with vans full of donations
Since then, the team have been posting regular updates on their Instagram page (@Lovefrombristoltoukraine) and say that there are more ways that the people of Bristol can help the crisis in Ukraine. They are now looking for anyone who speaks Ukrainian in Bristol, who may be willing to help, as well as people who could host Ukrainian individuals and families here, too.
The team plans on setting up a 'matching system' for Bristol people who would like to host refugees and are already getting a Facebook page up and running and speaking with UK Government contacts. So far, two families have already been matched.
And, of course, donations through the GoFundMe page are still very much welcomed. Some of the work the team have already undertaken includes shopping for clothes to support a local orphanage, delivering supplies to be carried across the border, making daily shopping trips to buy things that are needed by local charities and churches and making welcome packs for refugees crossing the border into Poland.
One of the welcome pack trips made just four days ago saw the team spend £450 in Lidl to make packs for 100 people. They included items like fruit, toothpaste, toothbrushes, wet wipes, sweets, bubbles, juice, water, protein bars and more, which the team took to places such as train stations, bus stops and locations where people would be just crossing the border and heading off on further journeys.
In one post on their Instagram page, the Love from Bristol to Ukraine team wrote: "So thankful for everything that the team has been equipped to do so far. We didn’t know what to expect when we arrived in Poland.
"We had developed some amazing connections over the phone and had locations to visit in mind, but the need of help at the border has been significant. The team really feel called to be there and helping in anyway that they can offer.
"Well done to this team and thank you so much for your support at home. Love from Bristol to Ukraine x"
At one point during their time over there, the team were given temporary accommodation by a local builder after having to spend a night sleeping in their van in temperatures of -16C. In a video on the team's Instagram page, one volunteer described how they were being allowed to stay on the top floor of a building site after being taken in by the builder.
They captioned the video: "All throughout this trip we have been touched by people’s kindness and generosity, from Polish customs agents waiving our aid supplies fees out of their own money, to supermarket staff offering significant discounts as we shop for our welcome packs for Ukrainian refugees.
"This love is a beautiful light to see in this time of darkness for Ukraine".
Half of the team will be leaving Poland on Friday, aiming to arrive back in Bristol on Sunday (March 18 and 20, respectively), while the other half will be staying at least another week to continue their work. One member of the team who is already back home is Rachel, who told Bristol Live about her experience and what she's been working on back in Bristol.
Rachel said that the journey across to the Poland-Ukraine border took much longer than expected because their commercial vans got held up on the channel tunnel crossing when the computer system went down, so they were delayed for several hours. She said: "Once we all got moving again the drive was long and exhausting.
"The team took it in turns to drive so we could go through the night but we had to end up stopping a few times to sleep as it was so tiring. In the end it took us 39 hours to reach our destination in Poland and we didn't arrive until 2.30am on the Friday morning, having left Bristol on Wednesday at 1pm."
Rachel described how, on the first night, the team slept on the floor in a church in a city called Rzeszow with their sleeping bags, before driving on the next day to Przemsyl which was their base for the week - the closest city in Poland to the border with Lviv where most people are crossing from Western Ukraine. Once in Przemysl the team connected with another church who, every day, are hosting refugees and helping them move on to other places.
Not wanting to take bed spaces in the church from refugees, the team spent the first night there in the car park in their respective vans - two members of the team even slept outside in their arctic sleeping bags.
Rachel said: "It was the coldest night of my life. Us in the camper van woke up with frost on the inside of the windows. I slept in all my clothes and still had to wake up in the night to put a balaclava on as my face was so cold! We were allowed to use the church's showers and toilets so that was great.
"The car park was next to a giant building site which is being worked on for apartments. In the morning the Polish builders came to start work and saw us sleeping in our vans and were horrified, and asked us what we were doing. We told them and they wanted to help so they asked the owner of the building if we could sleep inside and he agreed.
"So then we all moved into the building site which at least had insulation so was warm. They gave us the entire top floor, brought in lights for us and then a few days later wired up the electrics in our rooms so we had light bulbs and plugs to charge our phones. They also installed a sink with a shower head and hot water for us. It was amazing!
"Again we all just slept on roll mats in our sleeping bags but at least it was warm. It was opposite the church so we could go in and out of the church kitchen for breakfast and dinner and to use the toilets and shower."
As well as making up food packs everyday to hand out to refugees, Rachel said the team stayed mostly in Przemysl and having gone to the actual border a few times but realising there are lots of organisations and help there, they decided to stay down in the town at the main humanitarian centre for refugees where they drop people from the border, which is in a giant shopping mall.
She described the entire mall as having been "taken over to act as a hub". She added: "All the shops have been turned into sleeping spaces with beds on the floor, or registration points for volunteers to sign up, or for drivers to register coaches leaving to other countries and the food court has been turned into a world kitchen serving free food.
"We also worked with the churches to drive people around, so one day three of us went two hours north to pick up 30 refugees and drive them four hours south to a hotel in the Polish mountains which has been set up as holding centre for refugees. Marcus from our team also drove 10 refugees to Lithuania where they want to settle (this was a 20 hour round trip).
"We also took food aid to a school that has taken in lots of refugee children and couldn't feed them all and to another humanitarian centre in Przemysl, and also delivered all our supplies we had driven over from Bristol to a Ukrainian contact who drove over from Lviv to collect everything then drove it back. We also went to the train station a few times to pick up refugees coming in who had contacted us.
"One night while there we picked up a Polish fighter at midnight from the Foreign Legion in Yavoriv that was blown up the night before and took him back to the church for a shower then back to the station to catch a train home. Every day we met people who needed help so just helped however we could, wherever there was need."
"You can't even imagine the trauma they have been through"
Rachel told Bristol Live about some of the people she met and the stories she had been told, saying: "For me the worst part was hearing many of the refugees personal stories. You can't even imagine the trauma they have been through. When we picked up the 30 refugees and took them to the hotel we were in the vans with them for around five hours so I had a lot of time to talk to them.
"One woman's story broke me. Her house had been blown up and she jumped out of the window with her six-year-old son to escape. Then she went underground for five days in a bunker with little food and water.
"Every day she came above ground to see if they could escape but the bombs were still flying. She said eventually she felt like she was losing her mind so she had to escape. She fled to the train station and picked up her mother then they left on a train.
"An hour later her husband texted her to say the train station had just been blown up. She couldn't believe they had just managed to escape alive. They then travelled 10 days through Ukraine to the border.
"Her son was so traumatised he cried all night so she said she couldn't sleep for 10 days. She said every sound of even a car door slamming set off their adrenaline, fight or flight nervous systems. We met her on her first day in Poland. I went to a cash machine and got out several hundred pounds that people had donated to me and gave it to her and she was in tears.
"She kept saying to me 'how do I know where to go? And when we get there what do we do? How do I get a job? What will I do?'
"When we got to the hotel her little boy saw other children for the first time in ages and began playing and smiling again. I played with him too giving him piggy backs and stuff and she said it was the first time for 10 days she has seen him play. We exchanged numbers and have texted every day. The first night in the hotel she said it was the first night she had slept without waking up wondering if she had to run.
"Lots of refugees told me similar stories. One 18 year old girl was travelling on her own, another lady told me stories of Russian soldiers firing on civilian cars trying to escape, I also heard stories of women giving birth on trains. So many horrific stories. Every time they told me they would cry and I would just hold them and they would cry more.
"I think just giving them comfort was something they desperately needed. I also got very emotional at the train station and the humanitarian centre seeing literally hundreds upon hundreds of beds lined up and women and children sleeping everywhere. Most of the time I pushed down my tears to be strong for them as many of them are incredibly scared, but [one day] I just lost it.
'Burst into tears'
"I was giving a food pack to a little old lady about to get on a bus and she just kept saying thank you over and over in Ukrainian and crying and holding on to me. I walked away and burst into tears unable to hold it back anymore.
"I also saw a very old Polish man with a cane who could barely walk, walking around the carpark of the humanitarian centre with a sign around his neck in polish saying 'I have a room for a refugee. I will help you'. That made me lose it too.
"It's the combination of pain and tragedy the refugees have faced combined with the outpouring of love from foreigners that gets me. Also the need is overwhelming. Every day you see thousands more people arriving in wave after wave, and it can feel like your help is just a drop in the ocean compared to the amount of need."
Rachel also shared some of her more positive thoughts from her travels, telling Bristol Live: "I think just being able to help the people we could. I have a saying that 'we can't help everyone, but we can help someone' and those few people we did help meant so much to both us and them.
"You end up exchanging numbers and becoming friends. The lady with the little boy texted me to say 'you are my angel, please be my friend and come and visit me in Germany'. Those kind of things feel really positive to get to be part of someone's life beyond this awful war.
"It was great to be connected to them and feel that we have somehow made a difference, no matter how small, in their lives at this horrendous time. It was also so amazing seeing the amount of goodwill and help from people all over Europe who had come to help. At the humanitarian centre we met so many incredible people.
"One day we spent ages chatting to an old couple from Germany who owned a bus company and had come down with coaches to take people back to Germany. They were so lovely!
"After a while we got to know some of the coach drivers who were on their fifth trip to Poland, taking people back to Germany or Norway or wherever every day then coming back down. We also met quite a few Brits running around helping, again all just private citizens who had driven over to help.
"There were quite a few ex military Brits who had all come individually but met each other there and formed a team. They were patrolling the border, train station and humanitarian centre at night looking for traffickers (which is rife there) and reporting dodgy men to police.
"They were also going on trips into Ukraine to rescue people from Lviv. One night they got a call about a lady who was stuck and was being raped and they went over to get her. They also told us stories of people dying from the cold while waiting in the queue to cross the border so they had bought loads of blankets and were taking them up.
Help from all across the world
"We met a couple from Portishead who had come over and managed to become the managers of the warehouse at the humanitarian centre where all the supplies are. They had brought with them a little old man in his 70s who wanted to help and was helping them too with shopping and driving people around and stuff.
"One day I met two Italian war veterans in their 70s who had driven a bus down from Italy to take people back. Also there was an Indian restaurant from London who had pitched up serving free Indian food, some Spanish guys with a giant paella tent, and some Dutch guys who came with a fish and chip van. I even met a Korean pastor who was there with a tent handing out food and drinks.
"After being there a while you become friends with all the volunteers and it's beautiful. The Indian restaurant guys were Sikhs and they told me 'this is part of our religion to help humanity', which is also what we would say as Christians and why all the churches are helping. You see the beauty of humanity coming together beyond borders in the midst of all the pain and that is really special.
"When we picked up the 30 refugees to drive them to the hotel in the mountains we had several teenage girls in our van. We hooked up our phone and Spotify to the sound system and asked them each to choose their favourite song and we would play it as it was a long drive. They each chose Ukranian pop songs and asked us to turn them up so we whacked up the stereo and they were all dancing and singing along in the back and laughing as we were driving through the mountains. They kept saying it was the happiest they had felt in a while, so that was really special for us!
"It was also so heartwarming to see how much money people have donated to us. Our Go Fund Me was up to £15.5k the last time I checked and I also raised £3k separately in just four days to be able to take out cash to give to families who needed it. So many of my friends were sharing the Go Fund Me with their friends and so we had people who had never even met us donating from all over the world, sometimes donating sums as big as £1k per individual!
"That was really great and meant we constantly had money to buy food for the church to feed the refugees and to make our food packs to distribute. We are now also looking at buying some buses for some Ukrainian pastors who want to drive deep into Ukraine to rescue trapped people. All these things would not be possible without everyone's generous donations."
Rachel also spoke of a time when she was away where she received a "frantic" call from a friend of a friend in the UK whose elderly mother-in-law aged 79 was hiding out on a farm in central Ukraine and they were trying to get her out and bring her back to Britain.
She said: "She couldn't travel very far because she kept needing to stop for the toilet and also was too terrified to travel by herself so was just stuck staying with some people who had taken her in. Greg from our team had met with some Ukrainian pastors who were connected to the church we were staying at in Poland and they were planning to drive buses back into Ukraine to rescue trapped people.
"Within a day we had connected them with the guy in the UK and they said they could go and get her and bring her out to Poland where her family can travel over from the UK and take her back with them. It's little stories like that that make everything we are doing out here so worthwhile."
Rachel also said hundreds, if not thousands of people were out helping refugees and people fleeing from the war, saying that the "Polish people had really mobilised" and that the "Polish churches were doing an incredible job".
She added: "Every Polish church we visited had opened its doors and turned every room into bedrooms. The church we were at had a kitchen and showers and every night new refugees came and were served food all throughout the day and then taken wherever they needed to go.
"We would go into the kitchen for breakfast and chat to the new faces every day and the church staff were just incredible constantly serving meals and washing bed sheets and towels all day and night for new refugees arriving and just loving them really well. Volunteers had flown over from America and come over from Germany and other parts of Poland to help the church as the church pastor and his family were exhausted but they just kept going.
"The church had networks with many other churches in Poland and Ukraine so there were hundreds helping and they had co-ordinated it all up. Everywhere people were helping and doing their bit from everywhere in Europe."
You can follow the Love from Bristol to Ukraine team's progress on their Instagram page. You can also donate to the GoFundMe page here.
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