Oleg Samoilenko says he’s had a lot of sleepless nights and shed a lot of tears since Russia invaded Ukraine six weeks ago. Now a captain in the Salvation Army in Warsaw, Samoilenko was born in Ukraine. He and other aid workers are furiously trying to find food, shelter, and medical care for refugees still streaming into Poland’s capital city.
Many of those refugees have specific needs. The legacy human-services organization has partnered with a Polish LGBTQ charity to operate a shelter for LGBTQ refugees, who face a particularly complex future. There isn’t broad public support for LGBTQ people in Poland. It’s illegal for them to marry, adopt children, or enter civil unions. What’s more, some trans refugees struggle to cross borders because their gender isn’t updated on their identification documents. The Salvation Army contributed bedding, clothes, and food to the shelter, as well as a Ukrainian-speaking volunteer who helps refugees find cancer treatment, enroll their children in school, and meet other urgent needs.
The organization is also focused on welcoming expectant mothers, who often cross into Poland alone because men of fighting age are required to remain in Ukraine. When pregnant refugees give birth in Warsaw, the Salvation Army brings flowers and baby supplies to the maternity ward. “We need to show them that they are not alone,” Samoilenko said.
The Chronicle spoke with Samoilenko about the services the Salvation Army is providing to Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw and the support the charity needs from donors.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
What is life like in Warsaw right now? Is it challenging to find items like bedding or toiletries to provide at shelters?
There are so many people here now, and many of them are essentially homeless. They come from the border to Warsaw, and then there’s no room in the shelters because it’s just so full of people who came before them. Technically, refugees should stay at the shelter for one or two nights — but many have lived there for weeks already. Some people are sleeping at the train station for three nights because there’s no place for them.
The majority of refugees are women with children, so they try to enroll their children in school, but the classes are only in Polish. From morning to evening, these children sit in school, listening to another language. They’ll study math, theology, and English — in Polish. It’s completely different for them. There’s a school next door to the Salvation Army Corps. When Ukrainian parents come to talk with the principal and enroll their children, I translate for them. We’re organizing after-school programs for the children. I or someone else who speaks Ukrainian or Russian will staff the programs so that the children can feel safe, they can easily speak, and it will be less stressful for them.
How much of a challenge is Covid?
Everybody forgot about Covid. We still wear masks, but it’s no longer obligatory to wear them inside. Many people ask us how they can get Covid tests. If refugees want to go abroad from Poland, they need to have a vaccine certificate, but many of them don’t have one. They’re trying to get vaccinated here, but they need to wait to leave until they get their second or third dose.
What are some of the biggest challenges your organization faces as it tries to address this growing refugee crisis?
We need to buy different supplies for people all the time, so money is a huge help. Secondly, in Warsaw there is a lack of people who can help. Most of our volunteers work full-time, so they can only help in the evenings. Sometimes, for example, my wife will be the only person helping at the train station, and I will be the only person helping at our reception point. We need more volunteers.
What kind of lasting impact do you think Russia’s war in Ukraine will have on Poland and other countries in the region?
It will affect all of us. Poland is really a developed country. We lived in very good conditions, and now daily there are hundreds of people on the streets with big bags. They need help. They need food. They need places to live. It makes our lives different. There are fewer places in the school, in the kindergarten, for local children. Many refugees say, “In one month, we will go home.” I think, Well, they don’t realize that some of their home cities are completely destroyed. There is no home anymore. There is nothing.
One lady told me today, “I’m just a guest in Poland. I love this country. This country welcomed me very well. You care about me, but I know that I’m only a guest. I will go back to Ukraine.” But we don’t know if they will. In a few months, they will struggle because they will need to find jobs. They can’t sleep on the floor in the shelter for years. I think the future will be difficult for us, but still we should help.
What would you like donors around the world to know about the need that you see in Warsaw right now?
Sometimes people don’t ask us what we actually need so they send us silly help. We got a ton of dog food, and I felt like “Really?” Only about one in 20 families has a dog, so it’s not really what we need. But the problem is that nobody asked, ‘What actually is your need?’ Money is much easier for charities. If we spend it in Poland, the money will go further — we can buy even more stuff for this amount of money, and it will give practical help for real people.
Is there anything else that you’d like to say?
It is a difficult time now. We start the day really early, we go to sleep at midnight, and then we try to have our private life. Sometimes we forget what we need to do for ourselves. But I think it’s really important that we’re all helping because when we are together, we can do much more.
Today we had a family at the shelter where the husband is American and the wife is Ukrainian. They had crossed the border into Poland, and he told me, “Oh, I’m so happy to be in the Salvation Army. It feels like home here.” I tried to find American items in our donated food, or at least something like chocolate or cookies that will remind him of America. We do our best just to fill these people with dignity and hope.
