A whopping 13 tonnes of humanitarian aid collected by an East Kilbride church has been trucked to Poland to help Ukranian war refugees get back on their feet.
Since March, St Bride’s parish priest Father Rafal Sobieszuk has been co-ordinating an appeal which has seen four truckloads of donations reach refugees who have fled to his homeland in Eastern Poland.
Children from St Kenneth’s Primary School joined parishioners to see the lorry off on its five-day mission of mercy.
Fr Sobieszuk also made the journey home once again to help unload the haul of donations and has seen for himself the plight of refugees and the dedication of volunteers based in Poland.
He said: “Since we have received so many donations we had to send the fourth lorry of humanitarian aid for Ukrainian war refugees.
“This time we managed to load four tonnes more goods - the lorry was literally filled up to the last available space.
“During the unloading we had 30 people helping: female volunteers who run the place, local firefighters, Ukrainian war refugees and even an American from California.
“The volunteers were really surprised how long it took because there was so much aid sent to them. It took two hours to unload.”
Through the Red Cross and the Caritas Siedlce charity, several lorries of humanitarian aid is sent to Nadarzyn.
Natalia Jakubowska, a local volunteer who has actively helped refugees from the beginning of the crisis, explained what they do in the village of Nadarzyn.
The local Catholic nuns opened their convent to the war refugees, receiving 25 refugees locally in Walendów. The nuns also took in 40 women and children who reside on one floor of the convent.
The local advocate’s office has donated £50,000 to the project as well as white goods for the hard-up families.
Fr Sobieszuk explained: “The council in Nadarzyn tries to help the refugees as best as they can. They have a very detailed database of all the refugees in order to help those who are a priority. The local firefighters are also very helpful and volunteer their services every single day.
“The local council provide a lot of medical help; they have created a temporary hospital for Ukrainian soldiers, they bought an ambulance and donated it for Ukraine and made two temporary hospitals.”
Already some Ukrainian war refugees have left Nadarzyn in order to return to the Ukraine.
In the council area of Nadarzyn there was a big refugee centre, where at the beginning of war they had 10,000 refugees. At the moment there are around 4000 refugees - many of whom are traumatised and need psychological help.
At the heart of the project is its volunteers, some of whom have been selflessly giving a helping hand since the beginning of the war.
Fr Sobieszuk added: “The volunteers are so touched by our generous gesture and by the quality of donated clothes, many of which were brand new and top quality.
“The female volunteers from Nadarzyn were very happy that such beautiful items and essential clothes were donated to Ukrainian mothers who are in Poland with their children now. Some of them will be sent to Ukraine, of course.”
Kind-hearted personal gifts of small chalk blackboards with colourful sympathetic messages donated by children from Corpus Christi Primary School in Airdrie were said to have left the parents of Ukranian children in tears.
St Bride’s Church would like to pay special thanks to Bothwell-based company Keedwell who provided storage for the mountain of donations, and their staff who helped load the truck.
And thanks to Coca-Cola East Kilbride which again generously donated two pallets of bottled water for the expedition.
Donations are still being collected for the appeal and can be dropped off in St Bride’s Hall/Pastoral Centre, G74 1NN, every Friday between 11am and 5pm or contact the church if you wish to donate out-with these times.
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