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Update from RENATE member, Sr. Gabriela Hasiura
“At present, the Polish community is really amazing with its hospitality by accepting war refugees into their own homes. A large number of refugees are also looked after by their friends and families who have been living and working here for many years, which greatly facilitates integration, as their relatives have already become rooted in Polish reality.
It is also a sign of hope that most of them want to work, which is something Polish entrepreneurs who have been suffering from a lack of people willing to work, are happy about.
I have the impression that at the moment, both the government’s support in the form of financial assistance, free rail travel for Ukrainian citizens throughout Poland and the huge number of public collections, mostly satisfy the needs of refugees. We are aware, however, that in some time we will become tired of helping and perhaps then we will need help more.
At the moment, we are profiting from government and local government benefits as well as financial aid offered by UISG and fundraising in our religious congregations abroad. As an intermediary in helping refugees, we try to supervise and monitor that women and children are not abused, because the media also informed us about such, fortunately, few cases.
I think that the war in the neighbouring country makes a great impression on Poles, which is why the society is also reacting with great empathy. “