This is a cause and crisis that’s especially important to me. For those of you that don't know me, I was born in Warsaw, Poland. My parents, younger sister and I escaped Communist Poland in 1985 with just two suitcases and crossed the border into Austria. There, we went through 4 refugee camps and arrived in the US in 1986 seeking political asylum. I was 6, my sister was 2. Our conditions and reasons for leaving Poland were not even nearly close to as dire and urgent as to what is happening in Ukraine now. But I remember very well as a child how scary it was not knowing where we would be going, how we would survive and if we would ever go back to what was the only place I ever knew as home. These children and mothers, who are fleeing the war, leaving their homes and loved ones behind and crossing the border into Poland, have nowhere to go, no food, no shelter, very little with them.

 

I still have many friends and family in Poland. And a very, very dear family friend of mine, who has known me my whole life and with whom I am very close, started a foundation in 2008 and built an orphanage near the Polish-Ukrainian border. She and her foundation are now on the ground helping to bring in refugee children and mothers into Poland, meeting them at the border and train stations, sheltering them at the orphanage in Radymno as well as at the monastery in Przemysl, and working to place them in donated apartments in Warsaw. As you may have read, 2.4 million refugees have fled Ukraine so far (and the numbers keep going up!), half of which are children, and 1.5 million refugees into Poland alone. In Poland, people are literally opening up their homes and their hearts to strangers, housing and feeding them. Some are families, many are just children, separated from their parents for one reason or another. To some extent, I understand well these children's fears and uncertainties.

 

Below you will find information on how the foundation is directly helping refugees on its website. Please help donate whatever you can: $5, $10, $20, anything. I will be wiring the money directly to the Nasza Fundacja bank account, where the money is going directly to help Ukrainian refugees. Please help. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. We can all make a difference with love and compassion.

 

With much love, Agnes Rizzo

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NASZA FUNDACJA ul. Klimczaka 1, 02-797 Warszawa
SWIFT: PKOPPLPW, IBAN: PL 05 1240 1040 1111 0010 1809 6984

Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, Nasza Fundacja (http://naszafundacja.pl/en/) which translates into “Our Foundation” and is based in Warsaw, Poland, has been actively involved in helping refugees seeking safety and shelter in Poland.

 

Dom pod Lipami, which translates into “Home under the Linden Trees, built and supported by Nasza Fundacja and located about 30 km (about 18.6 miles) from the Polish-Ukrainian border, is welcoming children from Ukrainian orphanages. With the consent of the local authorities, it is also adapting unused rooms to provide shelter for mothers and children fleeing the war.

 

We also financially support the Benedictine Abbey in Przemyśl, where the Sisters have been receiving refugees upon their first moments in Poland after crossing the border. They require first and foremost the provision of basic needs: security, shelter, warmth and food. Older children of the Dom pod Lipami are assisting the Sisters in their daily activities related to helping the refugees.

 

Our Foundation equipped a flat in Warsaw, made available to us for charity use by a dedicated long-term supporter of Our Foundation, in which three Ukrainian mothers with four children have already found shelter. We are planning to convert more apartments in Warsaw, where refugees, over a million of whom have already arrived in Poland, will be able to find shelter.

 

We kindly ask for your support.

 

http://naszafundacja.pl/en/