– Sometimes they come with a bundle containing all their belongings, sometimes they arrive in good cars, with cash – that’s how Mateusz Kramek from the Open Dialogue Foundation describes newcomers addressing ‘Ukrainian World’, in an interview with a Newsweek journalist. In their weekly article, published on Saturdays, they devote many column inches to ODF volunteers and Ukrainian immigrants arriving in Warsaw.
According to the observations of the journalist, the premises in which ‘Ukrainian World’ is located, is teeming with Ukrainian life – Polish language lessons are delivered, a psychologist and volunteers offer help to immigrants, although, very often, they do not want to be referred to in this way – after all, they will only stay in Poland temporarily, awaiting the end of the war.
Oksana Ladyka, an ODF volunteer who has lived in Warsaw for a year now, helps refugees from the Donbass. 20-year-old Ihor from Donetsk found out about the Foundation and ‘Ukrainian World’ at a Warsaw railway station. Someone from the university, from whom he received an invitation and a student visa, was supposed to wait for him when he arrived in the capital. The meeting never took place; every time he called the contact’s phone number, he heard the recording “This number does not exist”. A passerby helped the bewildered young man. – A Pole noticed me wandering around the station, he gave me money and told me to go to the Open Dialogue Foundation – says Ihor, who himself has become an ODF volunteer.
Source: Newsweek
