Hey Lucy,
this is Fiona, one of the followers of Taiwan Bar based in Germany.
I’d like to share a story about the humanitarian aid that
my family sent to the Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
Hi, Fiona!
Brilliant! I LOVE listening to the stories that
everyone shares at Taiwan Bar!
Each story helps extend my database.
Your story is welcomed!
I currently live in Versmold,
a city in Western Germany, with my husband.
On the 11th of March 2022,
my husband and his friend
delivered a truckload of donation to Przemyśl,
a border city of Poland and Ukraine,
to support the Ukrainian refugees that fled their home due to the war.
Eh?
Didn’t they have to drive through
the whole Germany and almost the entire Poland
to reach Przemyśl?
Exactly!
It took my husband and his friend nearly 15 hours
to drive to Przemyśl.
Being located near the border of Poland and Ukraine,
Przemyśl is one of the front-line crossing points where refugees enter.
The destination of the humanitarian aid
was the gymnasium of a school in the city centre.
The gymnasium has been taken as a temporary shelter for refugees.
There were about 200 beds in the gymnasium,
and the shelter accommodated around 250 refugees
who were all women, children, and elderly people.
Whereas the adult male citizens from these families remained in Ukraine
to defend their homeland.
Marek Rząsa, who was once the chairman of Przemyśl city parliament,
facilitated the donation that we sent over.
He told us that the number of residents of Przemyśl
was around 60,000.
After the war broke out,
around 50,000 refugees flooded into Przemyśl.
The population of this small city surged in a very short period
and reached around 110,000 people.
Even though there have been lots of donations and volunteers
that are here to support the refugees,
there are still limits to the capacity
that the city could cope with.
Meanwhile,
there had been many volunteer organisations
from various Western European countries that sent buses over to fetch refugees
who were willing to resettle.
Mr. Marek Rząsa also told us that during World War II,
Przemyśl was one of the main front-line cities
where German Nazi Russian Soviet Army.
Now,
the city that was once occupied and divided by different forces turns into
one of the shelters for Ukrainians who are forced to fled due to the war.
And what’s the perspective of Polish people on refugees from Ukraine?
Even though the increasing number of refugees that entered Poland
has put the country under great pressure,
the people of Poland still take in refugees with firm and warm welcome.
Not only do Polish people help facilitate deliveries
of international donations and humanitarian aids from the border to Ukraine,
but they also organise multi-lingual volunteering groups to help manage
medical aids, accommodations, consultations, and other resources for the refugees.
Furthermore,
the toll collectors of Polish highway waive the charges once they verify that
the drivers of those vehicles are from Ukraine,
hoping to ease the burden of those who fled by car.
And how did you
start organising the humanitarian aid in Germany, Fiona?
Actually, it only took us one week
to organise the donations before the departure!
Only one week?
Yes!
We were first contacted by the former mayor of Versmold,
Thorsten Klute,
asking whether we were willing to participate in supporting Ukrainian refugees.
My husband and I decided to start raising the donations to send to Poland
right after a brief discussion with our family.
We shared the information of the aid on the Facebook page
of the hardware shop that we run in Versmold
and used the space of our shop to store and sort the donations that
we received from residents in the community.
What surprised and touched us was that
after we spread the news,
we collected donations weighing around 1.7 tons.
1,7 tons?
That’s about the capacity of four Taiwan blue trucks.
Could you tell us what people donated?
We received:
power generators, blankets and winter clothing, medical items,
baby items, rescue equipment, foods, and sanitary products.
Among the donations,
half of them came from the donors’ households,
and half of them were from their purchases for the refugees.
We had about 70 people that brought over their donations.
Many parents took their children with them to drop off the items.
We also had a few German Ukrainian donors,
and people of different ages and backgrounds who participated in the aid.
Everyone cared for the Ukrainian people’s situation.
I also discovered that many of the parents
who brought their children along took the chance to teach them
the importance of helping Ukrainian families and kids
who were forced to leave home.
Many people even suggested that they were willing to offer spare rooms
to host refugees at their homes.
When a war broke out in a country,
inevitably many neighbouring countries are impacted.
Some people reach out to help those who are in need like the ones in Germany and Poland,
and I am very touched by the spirit and actions!
Oh Fiona,
apart from the supporting vehicles from Germany and Poland,
were there ones from other countries?
After completing the delivery,
my husband and his friend saw a lot of vehicles
that came over to Poland with aids
as well as buses for refugees on their way back to Germany.
The volunteers came from everywhere in Europe
such as
Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany,
Switzerland, Austria, Spain, and so on.
While among the cars that came from Ukraine on the highway,
there were wealthy drivers with luxury cars,
ordinary families, elderly couples,
and mothers with their kids with less expensive cars.
What they all had in common
were the bags of belongings packed in their cars.
Their expressions also showed
how perplexed they were toward the future.
My husband also told me that the son of Mr. Marek Rząsa
invited him and his friend to have a quick lunch after they unloaded the donations.
However,
after seeing the refugees that had just experienced disasters and catastrophes,
they felt very weighed down and sad.
As they didn’t want to disturb the people further, they left without staying longer.
He said that the refugees at the shelter were all very calm and quiet.
None of them looked any different from himself
or anyone else from Western Europe.
Many children sat around together and watched Paw Patrol.
The cartoon was also dearly loved by our son,
who was of the same age as those children.
My husband was on the verge of tears when he recalled what he saw.
As to myself,
even though I had experiences of being an exchange student in Germany,
working and living in China and the UK,
it was not until I settled in Germany for marriage and family
that I began to understand
how closely connected I was with the world around me.
I also started to believe that
an individual’s power could impact other people.
To Ukrainian refugees,
crossing the border successfully is only the start.
Where should they begin their new lives?
How are they going to manage accommodations, employment, and study?
There are so many questions awaiting them ahead.
As to when the war will end?
When will they be able to get their old lives back?
There are no answers
to these difficult questions.
And that’s the ‘story’ that we got from sending humanitarian aid
to the Ukrainian refugees in Przemyśl.
I believe that being in Europe,
Fiona feels the influences of the war more extensively.
She also has some friends from Ukraine,
and that helps her symphathise with the refugees better
and find her relevance to Ukraine more easily.
Whereas Taiwan is an island country by itself.
Even if Taiwanese would like to support refugees,
indeed they lack the chance of being in direct contact with the refugees.
However,
the war certainly has a world-wide impact,
and what could Taiwanese do,
being more than 8,000 kilometres away from Ukraine?
It may be difficult for Taiwanese to help Ukrainians
like Polish do or send donations over like Fiona and her family did.
Yet apart from refugees from Ukraine,
there are also immigrants who left Hong Kong after Anti-ELAB Movement.
How do Taiwanese and Taiwanese government support the refugees
and people who seek for asylum from Hong Kong
and different parts of the world?
At the end of this video,
I’d like to ask you
how you picture the refugees?
If Taiwan is to take in refugees,
what are your reasons to support it?
Or would you instead worry about it?
I also found an article
written by one of the ‘bartenders’ at Taiwan Bar’s official website.
After listening to the story shared by Fiona,
if you want to learn more about:
Why are Polish people willing to help refugees from Ukraine?
Let’s start from the history of the border
between Poland and Ukraine!
Also,
to become a global citizen, what can one from Taiwan do?
Refugee Policies and ordeal in Taiwan
You may on the links in the information column for more details.
This is the end of our Q&A
“HEY LUCY” looks forward to more stories from you.
Submit your story to us,
then you may have the chance to call me for a chat!