Inspiring. Incredible. Emotional. Devastating. Productive. Uplifting.
These are some of the adjectives couple Leverett Dean and Annette Cycon and Montague resident Nadya Tkachenko used to describe their two weeks in Poland, where they volunteered to help Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of their home. country.
“They said, ‘The whole world is helping us,’ and that was a beautiful thing,” Annette Cycon said after returning to the United States on April 2. “They were amazed at the outpouring of support and kindness in Poland. It was the best of humanity meeting the worst of humanity.
The Cycons and their friend Tkachenko flew to Warsaw and spent much of their time at the border, providing assistance and services to people in need.
“It’s hard to sum it up,” Tkachenko said on Friday. “Two or three weeks into the trip, I’m still processing and trying to put it into words.”
The three traveled with Jim Bryer, the fire chief from Jamestown, Rhode Island, where the Cycons have a vacation home.
Annette Cycon said she and Tkachenko started by volunteering with World Central Kitchen, a non-governmental organization founded by chef José Andrés that provides meals to people facing disaster. They peeled 500 pounds of potatoes, onions and carrots to feed the refugees.
“It was a very wonderful experience. There were volunteers there from all over the world,” says Annette Cycon. “It was an extraordinary organizational feat that the World Central Kitchen created with 40 chefs and 50 volunteers.”
Dean Cycon, the owner of Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Co. in Orange, said he spent his first two days in Poland helping people carry their bags a quarter mile over the border to a bus that would transport them for treatment and relocation. He said he noticed that many of these refugees were elderly, so he bought a wheelchair to help them make that quarter-mile journey to the bus. Later, he donated the wheelchair to a Spanish aid agency for later use.
Tkachenko and the Cycons said they noticed housing — even temporary housing — was a critical need. They located hotel and hostel owners and negotiated good deals to provide at least 120 refugees with a safe place to stay. This is how they spent most of the money they raised through GoFundMe (bit.ly/3IfHHQm). Donations are still accepted and sent to help refugees.
The Cycons also said they distributed envelopes containing $100 in cash, mostly to distressed mothers. Able-bodied Ukrainians between the ages of 18 and 60 were ordered by their government to stay to fight the Russian onslaught. However, the Cycons said men with three or more children were allowed to leave with their families.
Tkachenko said he saw countless men dropping off their loved ones at the border, saying goodbye and turning back to wage war.
“It’s devastating to witness this,” she said.
She said she continues to send stipends to help people extend their hotel or hostel stay, buy essentials and “determine next steps.”
But the Cycons said hospitality was not valued in the same way. They said it is very common for Roma, a nomadic ethnic group commonly referred to as Gypsies, to be shown fewer resources and less kindness, although that term is now considered offensive. The Cycons said they helped a Roma family of 13 into a home. They also said that the humanitarian organization Salam Lab was a formidable advocate for Roma in Ukraine.
Tkachenko said he greeted many refugees at the border, speaking to them in Ukrainian or Russian.
“As soon as people heard a language they could understand, you could just see their shoulders relax, a smile returning to their faces,” she recalls.
Tkachenko said she used booking.com and Airbnb to find accommodations.
She mentioned earlier on Friday that she received a voicemail from a Ukrainian rescue driver, who is considering what comes next for her people and her country. Tkachenko said she would like American construction companies to consider sponsoring a building, project or truckload of building materials once the war is over and Ukraine is ready to rebuild.
Tkachenko has also launched a donation page (bit.ly/38VJGO3) on Chuffed, a crowdfunding platform for socially responsible projects.
The refugee crisis is personal to Tkachenko, who was born and raised in Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union. Her father was born and raised in Ukraine, and still has an extensive network of family and friends there. Tkachenko said she spent all school holidays in Ukraine and lived with her cousin in Mariupol – which was decimated by the Russian invasion – for a year in high school. She said her brother, who lives in Kazakhstan but keeps in touch with friends on the ground in Ukraine, recently sent her photos of the tattered remains of the house she shared with his cousin. Tkachenko said his cousin died of cancer a few years ago, but that cousin’s widower has not been seen or heard from since March 1.
“So the hopes are not very high,” she said.
The situation is also personal to the Cycons, both descendants of refugees. Annette’s mother, Wanda Kokurewicz, was born in Warsaw in 1929 and was part of the Polish resistance that fought the famous Warsaw Uprising. When the revolt failed, the survivors of the resistance were sent to German death camps. But Wanda was saved by the Red Cross because a resistance leader convinced the organization that Wanda was her own elderly mother’s daughter who needed medical attention.
Dean’s grandmother, Sarah Golembi, was 6 years old in 1906, when the family fled the massacre of Jews during the pogroms (violent riots) of what is now Belarus, and traveled to Ellis Island . The Cycons named their daughter Sarah.
Contact Domenic Poli at: [email protected] or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.
Comments are closed.