How Poland's business community is helping Ukrainians

Image source, Getty Images

The Zlahodniuk family spent days trying to convince their mother to leave the country.

She wouldn't come, was adamant in fact, says Mariana, a marketing and business adviser from Ukraine.

Zhmerinka is a strategic railway point and the frontline of the Russian invasion is edging closer.

Olena decided to make the dangerous journey to cross the border to safety in Poland because of the desperate phone calls from Mariana.

Olena's mother is left in their house in the small town, and she tells her to come home and tend to the garden.

On the Polish side of the border, Mariana picked up her mother after a complicated journey on a slow train with the lights turned off to avoid attracting attention from the Russian military forces.

Olena says that she will go home as soon as possible and that she will cook for the soldiers.

Image source, Mariana and Olena Zlahodniuk

When she arrived at the border town of Korczowa to collect her mother, she was struck by the lack of food and help available for the refugees crossing there.

She was overwhelmed by offers of help after calling around her friends in the marketing and business community.

She joined forces with a friend from Krakow. His company, vegan ramen af, has set up a portable kitchen to provide free food for up to 8,000 people a day at the border.

A Swiss investor funded more than 10,000 dollars for food shopping and Mariana spent more than 2000 dollars of her own money.

20 people are employed by Mariana as cooks and helpers, as well as providing transportation and running a hotel. She says that the work is tiring and some refuse to be paid.

Bakers sell me bread below market prices, firms bring in the food for free, companies offer free transportation and drivers. It is an extraordinary effort.

Image source, Getty Images

We want to provide support at all stages.

Polish businesses are helping refugees. Two million people have arrived.

Krzysztof Inglot is the founder of Poland's largest recruitment firm, Personnel Service.

We know that refugees in Poland need different support at different stages of their stay. At the beginning, it is mostly transport. Finding work and integration with Polish society is the next stage. He says that they want to provide support at all these stages.

Maciej Panek, chief executive of vehicle hire firm Panek has donated 1,000 rental cars to transport people away from the border, while the national railway company is offering free travel for refugees.

Image source, Getty Images

refugees have been given free buses on routes from the border. Two Berlin-based Ukrainian entrepreneurs launched a jobs platform that will help refugees find jobs.

Poland's largest private healthcare company, Lux Med, has offered free medical assistance to refugees. The costs of telephone calls to the main Ukrainian operators are being reduced by the mobile phone operators.

Banks in Poland have already removed fees for money transfers to Ukraine and for cash deposits and ATM withdrawals in order to help the refugees sort out their finances.

According to Mr Inglot's data, the labour market in Poland could absorb 500,000 employees within the next six months and another 200,000 after that, due to an acute shortage of workers in many sectors.

About 30% of people who have traveled to other countries have joined the labour market. That is good news for employers who need workers.

The British Polish Chamber of Commerce has been held back by a lack of workers in Poland.

Image source, Tech to the Rescue

Smaller firms are also participating in the rapid response. Dionizy Wincenty Placzkowski, the chief brand officer of HerImpact, says that the agency is working for free to help women arriving from Ukraine create new CVs, apply for jobs and translate documents into Polish and English.

Many Poles have opened their hearts and houses to provide support to people in need, according to Agata Zeman, managing director of the 24/7 media agency in Warsaw. The agency donated part of its office to the Flying Bag Foundation, which helps refugees organize their lives in Warsaw. We have given our team time to volunteer.

Image source, 24/7

A Polish foundation that connects IT companies with non-governmental organizations was launched the day before Russia invaded and within two weeks had 450 firms signed up.

The director of TechForUkraine says that IT companies have superpowers and want to use them for good.

TechForUkraine is working on a web platform to help Ukrainians find a place to stay. The platform is being created by a coalition of firms.

Image source, Wawel

There are ties between the UK and Poland.

One third of the BPCC's members are large UK-based businesses that are investing in Poland. Many chambers of commerce in the UK want to help by offering English language lessons online.

As soon as we heard about the war in Ukraine, I asked friends to start a collection of humanitarian aid, so together with Katarzyna Mazurkiewicz and volunteers we organised it.

There are a lot of good people. Ms Nowosielska says it is unbelievable how many people help.

Olena Zlahodniuk is itching to go back to Warsaw.