Goods For Good and UNIQLO Poland Visit

Our story begins in Luton Airport on a Wednesday evening with a flight direct into Lublin, Poland, just 80km from the Ukrainian border. Our mission; to participate in a small way in the humanitarian effort of Polish people to support their Ukrainian friends who had fled their homes under the threat of the Russian Invasion.

In some ways, Lublin is unique, in that it also has a special relationship with Lithuania and here the Union of Lublin was signed connecting the two countries together, something that still holds today. Highlighted by a unique media portal in the town square where people can see and connect with passers-by in Vilnius, and vice-versa. Waving at those you can see in the portal can illicit an immediate response from people in a city hundreds of kilometres away.

On arrival, we were met by the amazing Gerard Pienkowski from Hope Foundation, and the following day arrived at his warehouse in Lublin, where he stores many of the goods he has received from Goods for Good and UNIQLO. The generosity of people was there for all to see, with every type of essential goods that might be needed for the Ukrainian families. There had also been a recent delivery of all types of furniture to help create new homes for these families.

With the support of European UNIQLO team of Maria and Alessandro, who had flown in from Italy, Gerard, and some of his volunteers from the Hope Foundation, began sorting and packing goods to distribute at the refugee centre. Bags were packed with many items of UNIQLO clothing and other essential hygiene items ready to give out to the residents of the refugee centre. These were packed into boxes ready and transported by more volunteers to the refugee centre. A converted health centre housing 40 to 50 families.

Having unloaded over sixty boxes we were ready to share this with the resident families. What struck me that my expectation that we would find people who were down and sad as a result of all their recent trauma and experiences. In fact, they seemed quite the opposite they showed amazing resilience, happy to share their experiences and hopeful for the future.

Several hours later there was very little left in our boxes and it was time to say goodbye. Just enough time for a group photo and wish them well on the next part of their journey.