A Quebecer who has been living in Warsaw, Poland for two years, offers transport, logistical assistance and goods to Ukrainian refugees arriving at the border near her home.
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“There are so many people in need around us. It is natural to want to help them,” says Fanny Lanctôt Fortier, in an interview from Warsaw, the Polish capital.
Along with a group of friends, the 30-year-old from Montreal has set up several initiatives to help refugees, including transportation from the border to the capital, sending goods to Ukraine and paying fees. medical services to those in need.
Lately, they have had to drive a young mother to the hospital who was suffering the aftereffects of her recent caesarean section and tour donation centers with a family including a three-week-old baby and a man who was shot by a plane.
In order to carry out all these initiatives, Mme Lanctôt Fortier launched a crowdfunding campaign on the GoFundMe platformwhich raised over $20,000 in one week.
Full capacity
In less than two weeks, more than a million Ukrainians landed in Poland, a country with only 38 million inhabitants.
It is therefore increasingly complex for Fanny Lanctôt Fortier and her family to find vacant apartments to house refugees.
“There are almost no more accommodations now, it’s really very difficult for the new refugees who have just arrived,” she laments.
“Anyone who can have offered their accommodation. They move to make room for the refugees,” she says, adding that there are very often about ten of them per apartment.
She herself will go live in a few days with friends in order to leave her apartment, currently under renovation, to new refugees.
In the meantime, the head of Adidas’ marketing department for Eastern Europe is concentrating full-time on this project, since her employer has just offered five days off to her staff in order to allow them to lend strong hand.
Next weeks
According to her, this spontaneous generosity had not, however, been considered in the long term, either by the Poles or the Ukrainians.
“It’s one thing to let a family live with us for a week, but it’s another thing for a year,” said Ms.me Lanctot Fortier.
“At first the refugees who came thought it would be temporary, a few weeks and they would go back home. Now the idea that it may be longer is more concrete,” she adds.
She is thus aware that questions remain about their ability to find housing in the longer term, about the ins and outs of their refugee status or about their ability to work on Polish soil, in particular.
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Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com