For about ten days now, his tour has become a duty. With a few friends, never the same, Max Skorwider, a 42-year-old Pole, delivers between 200 and 300 sandwiches every morning at Poznan station. He gives them to Ukrainian refugees, the vast majority of whom are women, children who arrive here in the very west of the country, exhausted, often with empty stomachs. “Most of them don’t know what to do or where to go“, Max tells us in an annoyed tone. “No information is provided to them.“
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Among the more than 2 million Ukrainians who crossed the Polish border, 1.2 million stayed and sought refuge in the big cities of the East, such as Warsaw or Krakow, whose population jumped by almost 20%. Poznan is located on a railway axis, the main route between Ukraine and Germany.
“Do we have a state, or is it national crowdfunding?”
Hubert Vinchyck, Polish volunteerat franceinfo
Among the Polish volunteers who came to help the Ukrainians, the university professor is particularly angry with the state. “The firefighters and the few police officers who are there, it’s very good“, he concedes. “But no one organizes things. It should be the role of the state, but it comes from us. We will continue until the state does.”
Max believes that the outpouring of generosity of the Poles is immense. “I think of all his relatives who opened their doors. My friends have already hosted 16 people in turn in their second home. My parents are hosting a young woman or my sister who is once again hosting a whole family.“
He is interrupted by the ringing of his phone. At the other end of the line, another volunteer, Hubert Vinchyck. He has created a protected space for children within the station where they can rest. He collected quilts, toys. Like many of these volunteers, he specifies that he does not belong to any organization or political party. He too rose up against the government’s action: “do we have a state, or is it national crowdfunding?“He quips.
“All the government has provided are yellow vests, with their logo on them, as if we were working for them.“The spontaneity of the beginnings and its inherent disorder gradually give way to a solidarity that is better and better structured every day, the aid is becoming more precise, but in this crisis of an unprecedented scale, the Poles feel very much alone.
Ukrainian refugees in Poznan, a report by Ludovic Piedtenu
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