Jakub and his wife Gosia teamed up with the Polish arm of the Sue Ryder charity to hire out the Park Hotel Tryszczyn located not far from the city of Bydgoszcz, in northern Poland, where refugees arriving from Ukraine can find shelter while placed with local host families.

“I want to take immediate action because help was not getting to the right places quickly enough […] We cannot keep drinking tea and thinking about the crisis – now we’ve got hundreds of thousands of people exposed to potential abuse and sleeping rough” – Jakub Gołata told the PA news agency.

“I thought I needed to see it with my own eyes to see how can I help with my knowledge, skills and experience” – he added, referring to his occupation as a logistics manager on the HS2 rail projects. 

At first, Mr Gołata drove a minibus to the border and picked up some refugees who could be hosted by his friends and relatives. Yet, he quickly felt the need to get involved on a larger scale. 

He said: “I came up with this idea that if I would be able to rent an entire hotel and place these vulnerable mothers and children [there], and then allow them to settle, feel safe, looked after and be able to come to terms [with] what’s happening […]” – he explained. 

https://twitter.com/Champgal88/status/1506776703254900737?s=20&t=heJMc4IuU2rw21FPKFpeeA

The Ukrainian Refugee Hub in Poland provides the newcomers with shelter and basic needs so that they can look back at their situation and figure out what they are about to do next. 

Image: YouTube (Ukrainian Refugee Hub in Poland)

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen