Photo: Ukranian refugees at train station near Poland border. Pakkin Leung | Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-4.0
On February 26th, 27-year-old Mariana Zlahodniuk, marketing and business adviser from Ukraine, based in Poland, picked up her mother Olena at the polish side of the border. Upon doing so she said she was struck by the lack of food and help available for the stream of refuges crossing at the border town of Kroczowa and decided to act. Reaching out to friends in the marketing and business community, she was quickly overwhelmed with help. Her friend and restaurant owner, Harry Parwani, stepped in to provide free food for up to 8,000 people at day at the border. And the help kept coming -- a Swiss investor funded more than $11,000 of food shopping, National railway company PKP Intercity, Panek a vehicle hire firm, Transport firm FlixBus are all donating their travel services. LuxMed, Poland’s largest private healthcare company has offered free medical assistance to refugees. Mobile phone operators are reducing cost of calls to main Ukraine operators. Banks have removed fees for money transfers. "We will help as long as it will be required," says Krzysztof Inglot, founder of Poland's largest recruitment firm, Personnel Service. Smaller companies are doing their part, too, like HerImpact, a recruitment agency, helping women arriving from Ukraine create new CVs, apply for jobs and translate documents into Polish and English. "Many Poles have opened their hearts and houses to provide support to people in need," says Agata Zeman, managing director of the 24/7 media agency in Warsaw.
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