Laura is returning to Ukraine border to help refugees

A POLISH woman who is living in Clondalkin has decided to go back to her home town on the Ukraine border to help refugees as they flee the war.

Laura Jedruch, who is living in Clondalkin, has decided to go back to her native town of Przemyśl, which is close to the border of Ukraine, where thousands of refugees are arriving daily. Laura will be arriving back home on Thursday, March 3, to help distribute supplies to those who are in need.

“The situation is very bad in Ukraine and the Polish are helping refugees,” Laura told The Echo. “There are a lot of Ukrainian’s fleeing to Poland across the border and my family home is very close to the border.”

The community of Clondalkin, including staff at Newlands Garden Centre where Laura is an employee, have rallied together to show their support by donating necessities to a shipping container which will be leaving on Sunday, March 6 to help the refugees in Przemyśl and surrounding areas.

“As soon as my colleagues here in Newlands Garden Centre heard about this they wanted to help,” Laura explained. “We found a sponsor for the shipping and all of the community here in Clondalkin decided to help as well by donating goods – it is amazing.

“My dad is a fire officer, and he will take the shipping container in and then decide when they are needed the most and we will also take things over to the Ukrainian side to help them.

“My dad was at the border on Sunday for the whole day trying to accommodate people and the queue on the Ukrainian side was 40 kilometres long – it is really, really bad.”

Speaking about the horrific situation in Ukraine at the moment, Laura told The Echo: “I remember back in the past before this happened, a lot of Ukrainian’s lived in Poland. They had families and had a normal life. What is happening now is trains full of women are coming into my city and the same trains are going back with the men because they want to fight.”

Laura was initially due to go back to her hometown on March 15, with plans to travel to Ukraine on March 16 to pick up her wedding dress for her wedding this August, but says she is now going for a very different purpose.

“It is not important now,” said Laura. “I am going to go to the border and help people – it has to be done.

“At the moment, my family is safe, but we can’t say what is going to happen in a few weeks,” she said.