“Urgent! A mother of two is crossing the border at Medyka. Is anyone available?” Requests like this are piling up on the page of the Polish Facebook group “Kobiety Za Kółko!” (“Women take the wheel!”). You have to take a mother and her two children to Katowice. “Girls! Will any of you be in Dorohusk today? A child is traveling there alone”indicates another message.
The community numbers more than 1,000 women across Poland: drivers ready to take the wheel to propose to Ukrainian refugees – overwhelmingly women and children – safe journeys by car. Because in addition to the risks of rape and sexual assault, several international organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, have warned of the risk of seeing those displaced by the war in Ukraine fall into the hands of trafficking networks. of human beings on the road to exile.
The day started early for Ella Jarmulska. From her modern house in the suburbs of Warsaw, the 38-year-old Polish entrepreneur is finalizing the organization of a bus trip for refugees between Lviv and Warsaw. A first for the group, accustomed to car journeys with four or five passengers. “Dorota is on the way. We may be able to take care of 70 people”enthuses the one who co-founded “Women take the wheel!”.
Since its creation, its initiative has led at least 500 Ukrainian exiles on Polish roads. Depending on the requests they receive, the volunteers take the roads for three, four or five hours towards the border posts. They come to look for exiles stunned by the fighting and offer them a first respite, the time of the journey to their next destination.
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From the start of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, Ella Jarmulska insisted on acting. After a first fundraiser for Ukrainians at her daughter’s school, the 30-year-old wondered how to help more. She took the wheel on February 28, just four days after the launch of the offensive. “I jumped in my car. I remember, I told my husband I was going shoppingshe laughs. And then I drove to Dorohusk, at the border.”
When she arrived at the border post after dark, the Polish woman noticed that “many men offer rides” : “You had a lot of transport offers outside the center, and a lot of people waiting to be driven inside. Something was wrong.”
“I raised my hand. I said, ‘Warsaw, three places.’ And immediately three Ukrainian women came to see me.”
Ella Jarmulska, co-founder of “Women take the wheel!”at franceinfo
Speaking with these exiles on their way to the Polish capital, the entrepreneur understood how much they were “extremely vulnerable” : “These refugees don’t know anyone. They are at the mercy of the people who help them.”She too would have been terrified if she had found herself alone with her child in a foreign country, without money and traumatized by the war, moreover in the car of a stranger, she confides. “It was essential to provide them with a little security” underlines the thinking head of the project.
The discussion started on Facebook, calling on men to “stay in the kitchen”and women at “take the wheel”, smiles Ella Jarmulska. The exchange has become a group, in which female drivers coordinate and through which they take turns every day to help those fleeing the Russian strikes. Since then, the entrepreneur has added around 10,000 km to her car’s odometer. She who usually drives so rarely, she quips.
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On the rear window of Ella Jarmulska, as on the front windshield of that of Katarzyna Proch, a placard in Ukrainian colors tells the refugees that they will be driven by women: in a yellow shield on a blue background, a small car and the female symbol, and a hashtag on behalf of the collective.
This morning, Katarzyna Proch’s trunk is full of packages of diapers, water bottles and children’s books that she will drop off at the border, before leaving with several refugees. The imposing black vehicle of this entrepreneur has six seats, a chance for the initiative in which she has been participating since the beginning of March. Once or twice a week, the woman nicknamed “Kasia”, a mother of three, leaves Lublin, a large city in eastern Poland, heading for the Ukrainian border for “Women take the wheel!” .
After a cigarette break, the round-faced forty-year-old sets off for an energetic drive on the country roads towards the south of the country. She agreed to take us to the border, one way. On the way back, she wants to reserve her five passenger seats for refugees. The driver is waiting for a message from the group to know which border post to go to. “Kasia” has already taken 18 refugees to Lublin or Warsaw, responding to requests “for in three days or immediately”she says in a calm voice.
Her friend Ella Jarmulska pushed her to take the wheel for the refugees. She too identified with these Ukrainian mothers thrown on the roads. “Perhaps Poland will be affected in turn. I too could become a refugee with my children”explains the Pole.
“If in my turn, I had to go to Germany, I could not imagine myself in a car with an unknown man. I would trust women more.”
Katarzyna Proch, driver for “Women take the wheel!”at franceinfo
At the border, the police told him that they had seen “very imposing men looking for Ukrainian women”, which is confirmed by several volunteers interviewed by franceinfo in Medyka, a Polish town bordering Ukraine. Stories of missing children and assaults on women are also circulating on the internet, between volunteers and between refugees. “Police and Territorial Defense Forces organized at the border. That means there’s something going on.”, notes “Kasia”. In Poland, a man was also arrested, suspected of having raped a Ukrainian woman he was hosting.
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For the entrepreneur, there is no doubt: “The risks of kidnapping or rape are much lower, if any, with female drivers.”
“The women arriving from Ukraine are already traumatized. We are helping to avoid further trauma.”
Katarzyna Proch, driver for “Women take the wheel!”at franceinfo
“Some women have an adrenaline rush, they take care of the children and don’t stop talking. Others are closed and apathetic, without energy to speak”, describes “Kasia”. The driver remains marked by this elderly woman who was talking alone in her car, “sitting like she’s already dead”. She recounted having seen civilians being shot at several times, as well as a child losing a leg in an explosion.
The passengers are “extremely tired”after having “often traveled between five and seven days in a country at war”. “Mentally”they are “exhausted and scared”supports Ella Jarmulska. The entrepreneur notes that before getting into her car, “almost all women felt insecure” , worried about a future made up of so many uncertainties. “They were afraid of what would happen in Poland. Who would drive them? Should they get in the car of someone they don’t know?”
“Women were telling me that their friends being driven by men were scared the whole trip. It’s a five hour trip, after going through traumatic events.”
Ella Jarmulska, co-founder of “Women take the wheel!”at franceinfo
The exiles cared for by Ella Jarmulska put “about an hour” to trust the woman leading them. The 30-year-old describes refugees “very reserved” at the start of the trip, who need to see their driver “make a phone call or offer them internet access”to feel reassured. Halfway, the displaced let go. Ella Jarmulska has noticed the gasps of relief, the thanks and, most importantly, the women who end up falling asleep in her car. They finally feel safe, at least for a few hours.