Geert van Roij from Heythuysen did not hesitate for a moment when the war in Ukraine broke out. “I heard that they were going to pick up refugees in Poland. I have made my house available, I still have all the space here.”
Julia Gorova (31) lives in his bedroom with her four children. The youngest is seven months old. She fled when her home city of Kiev was bombed. Together with another mother of two children, she moved in with Geert.
‘They can do everything’
The children play and run around the house. “As long as they feel free, that’s the most important thing. They can do anything,” says Geert. “We don’t talk much about the war. They don’t like to do that either. Instead, we laugh a lot, against the pain.”
Sleeping on the ground
The refugees were picked up by Elena Kalinovskaya at the station in Krakow. “They are sleeping on the floor, often distraught. The logistics there are completely stuck, so we try to help,” explains Kalinovskaya. She lives in Limburg but is originally from Belarus. “I have to help. Ukrainians are my relatives.” In total, the volunteers of Platform Ukraine collected and accommodated 45 refugees.
Also read: Picking up refugees in Ukraine: ‘Government was too slow’
To trust
Elena speaks Russian and plays an important role in retrieving refugees. “Mothers with children are alone and scared. They don’t just trust you. Often they also want to stay as close to Ukraine as possible. I can talk to them freely. I tell them it is safe in the Netherlands and that they are well taken care of there .”
Heart in Ukraine
Julia Gorova is relieved that the exhausting journey of 1,200 kilometers is over. She follows the war from Heythuysen. She misses her homeland and family very much. “I’m glad I’m safe here, with lovely people who take care of me. I’m forever grateful to Geert. But my heart is in Ukraine, with my family. It’s so bizarre to see through your phone how everything bombed there is going to be.”
Don’t have to leave
She doesn’t know how long she will stay here. But she doesn’t have to worry about that, according to Geert. “However long the war lasts, I will never say: ‘Ladies, todeloe’. Even if it is months. I don’t worry about that at all.”