Help Ukrainian Mums Wash Their Kids' Clothes

I want to fund an industrial washing machine for Unitatem, a charity in Jarosław, Poland that helps Ukrainian refugee mums.

That's me in the photo, taken on 19 March in the laundry room of a disused school near Jarosław. Unitatem has hastily converted the building into accommodation for 250 Ukrainian refugee mums and their kids.

I've worked alongside some of the 10 volunteers who run Unitatem (which translates as "We Are One"). They are superhuman. They often don't sleep, and their diet varies from cold pizza to chilli-coated peanuts. But not even they can wash 50kg of laundry in a 6kg washing machine.

They need so much more than washing machines. Now operating over 5 sites, Unitatem is scaling up to provide shelter, food, childcare and even some work opportunties for 2,000 refugee Ukrainian mums.

Unitatem needs furniture, bedding, nappies, toys, vehicles .. can you donate a few pounds to help me at least tick a washing machine off the list?

About me

I live in London and work as a trainer and mindfulness teacher.

My Polish cleaning lady, Ela, moved home to eastern Poland last summer. When I rang Ela a couple of weeks ago, I realised that ordinary Polish people – not the EU or the Polish government – are shouldering much of the work and the cost of hosting 2million Ukrainian refugees.

So I got on a plane to Rzeszow to see if I could help. And I discovered that Ela's daughter's best friend was volunteering for Unitatem.

About Unitatem ("We Are One")

Unitatem was founded at the beginning of March by Patrycjusz Gaweł, a young property developer in Jarosław, Poland.

It achieved "foundation" status under Polish law a couple of weeks later, and is rapidly converting buildings (including a school, a college dormitory and offices) into accommodation for Ukrainian refugee mums and their kids.

Jarosław is just 30km from the Ukrainian border, and close to the railway hub for refugees at Pzemyśl.

Building trust

I want to get this site up quickly, and it's not possible to jump through the banking hoops that are necessary for donations to go straight to Unitatem.

But I promise you that every penny you donate will get to them.

I teach mindfulness courses through the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation , which is a registered charity in the UK. The OMF's chief exec, Sharon Hadley, has agreed to keep financial oversight over your donations. Sharon will be able to see the bank account into which your donations go, and verify the payments out to Unitatem.