How one small Polish town has helped 20,000 Ukrainians

When the war in Ukraine started, it was obvious that Poland could expect thousands of refugees, mostly women and children, who would need help and support.

The help was given immediately, mostly from citizens who had started to organise themselves and prepare boxes with essential items such as food, clothing and basic medical treatments.

Thousands of Polish people went to the border crossings with Ukraine to not only help with serving a warm meal or give the first assistance, but also to take these people to their home and provide them a safe space to live. 

Of course, it was only a matter of time before help centres for Ukrainians opened up across the country.

One of them opened just at the beginning of March, in my hometown, Nadarzyn which has around six thousand residents.

The PTAK Humanitarian Aid Centre in Nadarzyn is Europe’s largest aid point for refugees from Ukraine, which has been established at the Ptak Warsaw Expo Trade Fair and Congress Centre.

The venue has an area of 150,000m sq and is able to accommodate 20,000 people in need at a time.

It operates with the support and coordination of the Polish government and the Mazovian Governor with a voluntary help from hundreds of people not only form Warsaw and its area, but also more and more people coming from abroad.

“The transformation of the trade fair hall into an aid centre was made possible by the commitment of the employees, some of whom are Ukrainian,” explains Tomasz Szypuła, CEO of Ptak Warsaw Expo.

“Of my 300 employees, 70 are Ukrainian. I was fortunate that I could staff all the critical points with people who know Ukrainian. This greatly facilitated registration and indication of the rest area.”

The Humanitarian Aid Centre is a hub providing temporary shelter to refugees before they find their final destination in Poland or another European country. Refugees receive medical assistance, temporary accommodation, food, access to basic hygiene products and psychological support 24 hours a day.

“The mayor of Nadarzyn, Dariusz Zwoliński said; “Since the very beginning of Putin’s Russia’s shameful attack on our eastern neighbour, I have been observing in our entire commune an unusual and extremely encouraging unity of effort on the part of almost all residents, associations, organisations, religious associations and businesses in order to support the war refugees who found safe shelter in Nadarzyn in these difficult times and the civilians affected by the war in Ukraine.”

Several thousand field beds have been set up in the hall, there are also separate areas with food, bathrooms and medical assistance, a space for mothers with children and a playroom.

On the premises of the PTAK Humanitarian Aid Centre, a large bus station, ‘Europa Station’, has been launched. Its task is to enable communication with countries all over Europe, as well as with other Polish localities.

For refugees from Ukraine staying at the centre, free transports are organised to other communication ports, aid centres and further accommodation. The main directions of the organised transports are: Germany, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy.

Since the beginning of the war on February 24th, more than 3.4 million Ukrainians have left their country and crossed the border with Poland. Some 1.3m of them have emigrated to other countries.