A very short chapter!

Before our journey to Lviv, we spent one day revisiting the Plaza Galeria refugee centre, based in a disused shopping mall in Krakow. (On the other side of the car park is the Hilton Hotel!) There did not seem to be as many camp beds in the makeshift rooms (that sleep about 50), but there are probably still about 400 refugees sharing about a dozen toilets, a few sinks and a handful of showers. It's getting very warm inside now.

It was good to see faces we knew, including USPUK colleagues, Alen, the World Central Kitchen chef, and Pavel, the centre coordinator. Bob was disappointed not to do any cooking as, other than burgers, all the food is brought in ready-made. On the positive, there is more variety and plenty of fresh fruit.

By coincidence, a young woman who had been struggling for several weeks to make a decision to come to the UK (with her 4 year old son) contacted me yesterday. I was able to set up a video call with a wonderfully caring sponsor in Axminster, as a result of which visa applications will go ahead. As with most refugees, O is very traumatised and will need a lot of support.
Axminster is not very far from Bridport, where we have helped to settle another mother and child, and, hopefully, links will be made between them.  

We will be returning to the Plaza Galeria at 6am tomorrow for our transport to Lviv, which is a humanitarian aid vehicle. Bob says it's a double decker bus - not sure if he's joking or not! In any event, I hope the journey will not take as long as that of a woman on the same plane as us, who was returning to Kyiv to see her 21 year old son for a day before he has to go off to fight. She was on a regular public transport bus that was held up for 13 hours at the Poland-Ukraine border!

We already have a few contacts in Lviv and were warmly welcomed when we visited for a few days about 3 weeks ago. One of these is a charitable organisation called MAD - fairly appropriate! - which stands for Make a Difference, also appropriate. They are running something called "Operation Safedrop" alongside the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme. Their volunteers transport families who need help to leave Ukraine and travel to the UK. We think we may be able to work with them and others who have similar aims. This will be the next chapter...

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