(by Deirdre Morgan) (translation of the title – War in Ukraine – through my own eyes)

In a humanitarian crisis, transferable skills rise to the surface fairly rapidly.  At the beginning of this my Mission of Mercy trip I felt I had none. James seemed at home, he’s been here nearly a week and I was watching and listening to him speak to people. Yet all I could see in that first day or two was a sea of faces and I felt like a fish out of water. I didn’t think I could do what he was doing. To use a military analogy – after you’ve crawled under the barbed wire and swam briefly through a water tunnel filled with muddy water your sergeant will sometimes grab you by the scruff of your neck, and shout into your ear ‘compose yourself!’ and then slap you on the back and say ‘go’! I didn’t feel ready.

My second day in Warsaw was my first day left alone in situations with Ukrainian refugees – I cannot lie, I was apprehensive. At the start of my day as I was walking to the bus station, our ‘base’ I was having an inner conversation. Literally I was talking to myself ‘in the tunnel’ asking myself what’s my role here. I thought, I know, James can do the talking and I’ll just be a reporter. But ‘sergeant’ James reminded me that there are women here too at the bus station.
My first situation was a false start – I saw a woman with her mixed race children outside the bus depot. We are trying to help the most needy and non-EU people who are vulnerable due to not having biometric Ukrainian passports. I hesitated and thought over my approach – but she suddenly left and I was inwardly kicking myself over a missed opportunity.
Then I followed James in search of the needy to the departure platform where many refugees were boarding for European cities. We looked around to see if there were any who  needed help. There we saw a mixed race family, this time dad was there. James engaged him in conversation – we saw his wife standing nearby with 4 of their children. The conversation we had with him was similar to those I’d witnessed before, except I’d not personally spoken with a family firsthand. This man told a heart-rending account of his Eastern Ukraine city being heavily bombed. He and his family hid underground for a week as Russian tanks rolled in. It was a harrowing testimony as his kids were terrified. He and his wife took their kids on a week-long journey through Ukraine to get their family to safety. We shared about a mixed race family we know in Amsterdam, he was all smiles as he’s en route to there. He was more than happy to be put in touch with our guys in Amsterdam.

I turned to his wife as the men are talking. Her English is limited but it was clear from her smiles and body language that she was pleased to talk. She and her 12 year old daughter tried to figure out what I was saying. I was asking about their city. I interrupted James and her husband’s conversation so he could translate my questions. Once she was clear I wanted to see her city, we were able to move on to using google maps and translate, and got there in the end! I saw how Eastern this city was.. right next to Russian controlled territory!

Her younger kids were active and were running around. Their dad explained being underground for so many days they needed to get rid of some of their energy.  Their mother was contained despite the kids’ darting about. It was my first experience chatting alone with someone. I felt a mixture of power in being able to listen and empathise, but also powerlessness as a wave of need  hit me – this war is displacing whole families. We left them as the father was checking a notice board to ensure they hadn’t missed their bus. We needed to move on and find others so we parted at that point. We met 3 men together and gave advice which they gratefully received. After this we circled the other end of the boarding platform, no non EU persons there so made our way back.

This time this father was walking towards us, as buses coming in were near the vicinity and he was checking their numbers. We engaged again and were helping him scan the station looking for his bus number. He showed us his ticket which he’d paid a lot of money for. Travel for Ukrainian refugees is free so he shouldn’t have paid for it but he won’t get the money back. Stress is etched on his face as he’s running out of money. We discussed how precious getting the right information is and how its in short supply. We asked more about how he was being helped. He said there is a lot of ‘talk’ but he said ‘he’d believe it when he saw it’. We recognised this man had a genuine financial need and James pressed a small token of a 100 zt (Polish zloty) secretly into his hand. (this was money received from donors in Norway, Ireland and the UK, not ours). His countenance was ecstatic, he felt loved. He knew we weren’t ‘just talking’, we meant it! It was not a large amount of money.

After goodbyes, James suggested we walk past his wife at the other end of the platform and give her a token also. I greeted her once more, slipping the same sum in her hand. She was reluctant and grateful at the same time. We hugged and there was a bond, she felt accepted in this crowd where her husband and children’s ethnicity were so different. We understood from talking to many non-EU citizens that there were not so many conversations with strangers. We also understood that this was not always due to the language barrier.

Finding that little family was part of the reason I came. Initially, I was not going to come. James asked me urgently though due to the lion’s share of the refugees being women and children. That moment walking away from that family sensing their comfort and joy made my heart soar. I was so inspired, tears came to my eyes. Tears of joy, from how, as part of a unified collective effort, I have been able to bring a woman’s touch and make a small difference in making people feel loved right in the moment of pain and stress. I am so grateful for that.

We left this lovely family and walked back through the bus station again getting ready to do ‘our rounds’. Our main base was the Western bus station Warsaw at that time – our day started there first, then Western Rail station which is just around the corner then we’d board a train or cab (luckily cabs are £2 for this distance), to Warsaw central station and continue to seek out people in need.

We notice there are significantly less people in the bus station that the days that James has spent prior to my arrival. We found out later that the cities of Warsaw and Krakow are now overflowing from refugees to saturation point. The government has now shifted their focus to bringing refugees into other Polish cities. We realise from this we will need to shift our focus  in the coming days.

These were some of the moments of my second day in Warsaw.