Begoña Baños, project technician at Altius, the social work of Regnum Christi in Spain, has been in the city of Przemsyl in Poland since March 22 to work with the Altius partner in the area, the NGO Cadena International. In addition to coordinating the reception and distribution of the donations in kind that are sent through Altius on a weekly basis, Begoña attends to the refugees who need to move to Spain, some of whom will be received and accompanied by Altius in their reception process through the Aid to Ukraine campaign that has been set up.
Begoña explains the impact of witnessing the exodus of families, women with children, elderly people, in the precarious material conditions in which they arrive and the magnitude of the first reception system organized in Poland.
40-hour queues to enter Poland
“We are very close to the border, the queues that form to enter Poland are very impressive, sometimes lasting more than 40 hours, mothers with their small children waiting in the cold,” she says. «Once they cross, there are 25 tents for basic and emergency care such as hot food, blankets, hygiene and areas for a while to rest under cover,” Begoña explains.
Begoña testifies that “the situation in which they arrive is very hard: elderly people alone, babies, most of them with their clothes on, or with small bags, they hug us and thank us”.
The temporary shelter
From this location, which is in the city of Przemsyl in Poland, they are transferred to the refugee center: «It is a huge adapted facility, where a short stay awaits them until they can travel and where they are placed according to their destination countries,” he explains.
“It is shocking to see how a large space has been adapted to house thousands of people: a huge empty shopping mall is its roof for a few days, the place where the refugees are distributed in open-plan rooms, with thousands of mattresses,” Begoña describes. It is a place that “has some basic services such as a pharmacy, a children's play area and food tents that operate 24 hours a day”.
The work focused on relocation
Begoña Baños also explained what her daily work as a project technician at Altius consists of: “A large part of my daily work is focused on assisting people who want to travel to Spain, organizing their transfer and accompaniment. The chaos of the first weeks has fortunately disappeared, there is a strict control by the Polish security forces for the departure of refugees”.
The transfer to Spain is usually done “in buses of humanitarian organizations with which we are in contact and with a specific destination that we have agreed with them”.
In addition to this, Altius also “manages everything necessary to provide them with accommodation from the moment they arrive in Madrid, either in one of the collective residences that we have set up, or in families already selected to host them”. You can apply to collaborate as a host family in the campaign of Help to Ukraine through the web.
There is a drop of hope and at the same time uncertainty in the midst of this situation: “We know very hard stories and although the greatest joy is when we say goodbye to them, that they can leave there to a safe place and to live in decent conditions, I keep thinking how hard it must be to travel to an unknown place without knowing the language and with everything they leave behind in addition to the physical and emotional exhaustion they suffer”.
Acknowledgment
The campaign is still underway Domomoyích of Aid to Ukraine through Altius, the social work of Regnum Christi. To all the people who are making it possible for Altius to be helping in this way, thank you. Periodically we offer information about the needs and about the help that is being received. You can keep up to date through the web, and the social networks of Altius and Regnum Christi.
