HONG KONG (SE): The Claretian Missionaries in Hong Kong received news from Claretian Sister Joanna Pępkowska, about the trip they made to the Poland-Ukraine border to help refugees
March 5, 2022, 1.30am
After a 300 km journey we are at the Przemyśl, Poland, suburban parking lot, waiting in two cars to pick up from the train station refugees who managed to escape from Kiev – we know one person there.
They waited two days for the train in Kiev, in cold weather and overcrowded station. The transfer of the trains in Lviv was also dramatic. It’s a struggle to get on any train going into direction of Poland. It does not matter where in Poland, as long as it goes to Poland. We wait for a signal from them that they have crossed the border, then we move to the station. They will probably be there soon, because they were supposed to be there at 1 a.m.
March 5, 2022, from 9.00am onwards
Finally we have the news! We go to the station and expect chaos. We expect thousands of Ukrainian women, but what we see at first are many Asian families. I ask Sister Julia, a Claretian Sister, who herself is Ukrainian, about it and she explains that there are many Asians [Chinese, Vietnamese] running their small businesses in Ukraine.
Unlike the Ukrainians, they can come to Poland with their whole families, as for Ukrainian citizens, only women and children can leave the country.
And Ukrainian mothers fill their small bags with folded, ironed clothes for their children, they change their clothes, comb their hair, kiss their husbands, take their children and journey for days—50 hours journey to Polish border is considered a short trip these days. Nothing for themselves, except the clothes they wear, everything for their children, they carry.
At the train station in Przemyśl there are rooms where they can warm themselves up, take a rest, eat something before they continue their journey. But instead of the chaos or at least a lot of confusion, the atmosphere is quiet and peaceful at the station.
Police, paramedics, territorial defense troops, scouts, all are there helping to ease the pain and suffering. They help to carry the luggage, children, dress the wounds, take those who need medical assistance into the hospital.
We are helping one family to get onto the train going to Wroclaw (a major city in the western part of Poland). The mother is too tired to carry her little daughter and so we have to stop and let them rest for a while. A well-built policeman approaches the little girl and holds out a candy in his outstretched hand. The girl stops crying. She shows me a rabbit she got from her grandfather. She says she is missing her grandpa and wants to see him. And I know that her grandfather will not leave Ukraine and I do not know if she will ever see him again. The little girl does not cry anymore, but I begin to cry.
At Przemyśl train station, three trains from Ukraine arrive during the day. After each train arrives and before the arrival of the next one, those who are there to serve need to take care of all the arriving families and then make room for thousands of other refugees. And so this is the case for many stations in Poland. It is a humanitarian disaster that Europe has not seen since the Second World War.
We are coming back tired but happy. We have found in the multitude of people, those we came to fetch and help. With them is Dasza, who comes from Sumy.
Sumy is a city in northeastern Ukraine with a population of 300,000 which is under heavy fighting. The city has been besieged by Russian troops. There is a difficult situation with electricity, heat, water and food supplies. However, there are many people who are willing to risk their lives to help those in need. One of these people is Mrs. Nina Czerniawska, the mother of Sister Julia, the sister mentioned above.
We were talking to Nina one morning. There was still electricity that day and her phone was charged. She said she was glad that it was snow that was flying from the sky that morning and not bombs. The snow will melt and they will have water to drink—there was no water for a few days and all supplies have run out.
Dasza belong to the few lucky ones who were still able to fled from Sumy to Kiev, and then to Poland. According to Nina, it is impossible to evacuate from Sumy, because the railroad tracks and the main roads have been bombed. One could try the back roads, but the cars of those families who tried that were shot at a few days ago, and some people died, including small children. The inhabitants of that city can only pray and wait for any help from outside, but at the moment of our conversation no humanitarian convoys are reaching there.
For the moment Dasza will live with us, but she plans to migrate outside of Europe. Next week we will go again and get more refugees and our community will grow.
Sister Joanna Pępkowska, MC
Ps. Mrs. Nina Czerniawska, and us, Claretian Sisters would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts for the help everyone provides for us. May God bless you all and may peace prevail.
