I met Nadiia at Soup for Ukraine, she volunteers there and she’s also from Ukraine. She came to Poland years ago but her parents are still in Ternopil, which is located between and south of Lviv and Kyiv, but closer to Lviv. She desperately wants them to come to Poland, but they won’t leave. She thinks it may because they somehow know once they leave, they may never return. The war and the news of it are a source of much anxiety, sadness, and despair for her. So much so that she said her 12 year old son started asking if he did something to upset her. She explained over and over that it was not him, she explained what was happening in Ukraine. He now knows not to ask, but instead has taken to comforting her. She says they talk about the war at his school and have brought in psychologists to help explain it more. There was a drawing exercise and he wrote that he hates the Russian soldiers, he hates the Russian language which is his father’s language. I’m sure so many feel this way. This is also how hatred of a people starts- one person starts a war and everyone else will now pay for it- not just the Ukrainians, but the Russians, too.
Nadiia carries the Ukrainian flag in her backpack, folded up, all the time. It’s a sort of talisman and it has become so imbued with meaning that she won’t go anywhere without it.
Magda, standing, center, is 26, is the day to day go to person for many that volunteer and work at the hostel on Pilsudskiego. A general organization of refugee help was formed in fall and winter 2021 to aid refugees on the Belarusian border, sending supplies that would be useful for life in a forest during winter. Eventually it came to encompass help for refugees in general who are waiting for a decision to be made about their residency status. When the war started on February 24, the organization as it is -mostly the result of the work of a small group of women in Krakow- immediately realized that a space would be necessary to provide refugees with a place to rest and figure out the next portion of their journey. She says they found the building- unused for many years, dirty, and in a very raw state, completely empty walls- and in 48 hours they had their first guests. Monday she was still cleaning windows and on Tuesday March 1, their first guests arrived. Word spread quickly- both as a refuge and also for people wanting to help. They were inundated with donations when they posted their need for mattresses, bedding, food. Now the World Central Kitchen provides their meals, but before that they were provided by school children and other individuals volunteering to bring in sandwiches.
While there, it felt predictably chaotic, it was the largest refugee space I’d been in - they house about 150 people. Children run around, parents after them. Women on their phones speaking in Ukrainian in the stairways and hallways, meetings downstairs in the main room with various volunteers and NGOs helping to place them in good work and living environments- whether that’s in Poland or beyond. The constant movement upstairs is balanced with pockets of quiet upstairs.
Anna came from Ukraine with her mother and is nearing the end of her time at the hostel as she heads to Austria for work and a place to live while her mother goes back to Ukraine.
Maxim, 17, left Ukraine with his cousin, Angelina, 19, , while his parents stayed behind in Ukraine. He brought his pregnant dog with him who gave birth last week. The typical amount of time for refugees to stay at the hostel is 15 days, but due to the birth of the pups, these guys, or at least Maxim, will stay 8-10 weeks so that the mother can finish nursing before moving on.
For now, the pups are an endless source of entertainment for the transient tenants of the hostel.
Viktoria, 18 is from Ukraine, a town near the Moldova border. She came to Krakow to study law and foreign relations before the war started and is now a volunteer at the hostel. Her family, including her brother remained at home, his vision is not good so he hasn’t been recruited to fight in the war. She expressed her frustration that her teacher from Odessa has not made any public comments about what is happening, and that he is pro Russia, but is pleased that her teacher in Krakow has been criticizing the war. She believes it’s up to local Ukrainian government and town officials to be vocal about condemning the war, their silence frustrates her. She hopes to eventually return to Ukraine.
A wall of children’s art at the hostel. The hostel is filled primarily with women and children. They average a 15 day stay there, the volunteers are constantly working to place them within or outside of Poland with work and housing situations that will help them earn money to eventually take back to Ukraine.
Martha arrived from Texas about a week ago, working with traumatized children in a therapeutic setting is her specialty. She will be here for two weeks playing with them and teaching them methods of coping with anxiety arising from what they witnessed and experienced.
A living and hang out space in the hostel.
A wall filled with information for Ukrainians.
This is a free pop up clothing store started by an artist named Paulina and her boyfriend. They realized a need for teen refugee girls and boys to feel good about the way they look, and how much clothing is tied to identity and self perception. Since many Ukrainian kids left most of their clothing behind when they fled, she organized a small free boutique behind the Hotel Cracovia, which is typically used as a carpentry workshop and was donated by the Design Forum- a store in Hotel Cracovia. Paulina says their boutique has been incredibly successful and they’ve received phenomenal donations, but the pop up will be coming to an end the first Saturday of April because it is a time consuming venture on which she spends all day everyday- unpacking donations, organizing them and being generally available. She said she is happy to pass the entire concept including the clothing on to someone else who can take it over, otherwise they will send remaining merch to a similar place in Warsaw.
Women and teens peruse the wares. Women shop for their children.