At the Ukraine-Poland border, this volunteer is documenting moments of pure joy and heartbreak.
Here's why Alina Dabek put her career on hold to help Ukrainians fleeing the war ...
Here's why Alina Dabek put her career on hold to help Ukrainians fleeing the war ...
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NewsTranscript
00:00You're bigger.
00:02You're bigger.
00:04Aww.
00:06Every time I think of that boy,
00:08my heart melts a little bit more.
00:15There are tons and tons of little children
00:17coming through.
00:19Babies and mothers.
00:21So we're helping all of them.
00:23We're helping organize accommodation in Poland
00:25and also elsewhere.
00:27This little boy was waiting
00:29for a connecting train.
00:31So he grabbed my hand
00:33and he started walking.
00:35And he walked up to one of the scouts
00:37and he put our hands
00:39close together
00:41wanting us to hold
00:43hands together.
00:45I had tears in my eyes
00:47and I looked around
00:49and every single person
00:51who watched had tears
00:53in their eyes.
00:55We knew that he might be
00:57missing his father.
00:59He might be missing seeing
01:01his parents
01:03holding hands together.
01:15My family actually lives not that far
01:17from the Polish-Ukrainian border.
01:19We've had air forces
01:21flying over our heads
01:23for the past few days very intensively.
01:25When everything started to
01:27kick off, I knew that
01:29I needed to be physically
01:31there. I found a way
01:33to volunteer
01:35and we went to the border.
01:37That's where all of the trains
01:39from Ukraine were arriving.
01:41We are here in Przemysl
01:43and we have just organized
01:45all the goods for
01:47the people who will be coming through.
01:49We were thrown into a deep end
01:51completely because
01:53to figure out what to do,
01:55how to do things, we needed to prepare.
01:57Keep in mind that every train
01:59at that time had
02:01approximately 1,500 or
02:032,000 people. Everything in here
02:05comes from donations and we had much more.
02:07We just couldn't keep everything there at once.
02:19If it wasn't for the volunteers,
02:21this operation would not be functional.
02:23There are a lot of politics.
02:25No one talks about this, but
02:27you know what? It's frustrating.
02:29It's absolutely frustrating because there are people
02:31coming in wanting to help. They're being
02:33sent away.
02:39What I want to talk about is
02:41this document, the application to get to
02:43the UK. It is not a two-page document.
02:45It doesn't take five minutes to fill out, but
02:47can we just appreciate this?
02:49If I'm escaping the war, I will make sure
02:51to take my bank statements or
02:53tax returns in English.
02:55England, are you for real?
02:57At the site that we are at, we only
02:59allow three days max because
03:01we need a rotation. Where are these
03:03people going to go next?
03:05I really
03:17want to acknowledge the people.
03:19The people who are here,
03:21who are on the ground, who are helping
03:23because they are doing
03:25an incredible job.
03:27A lot of them barely have money
03:29to be here, but
03:31they come here for weeks.
03:33They've all said that
03:35helping out and being here,
03:37being of service,
03:39as heartbreaking as it can be,
03:41it actually brings out this
03:43immense
03:45internal satisfaction.
03:55First of all, you can
03:57donate. One thing that I would
03:59perhaps advise is to search
04:01for either small organizations that
04:03are here on the ground that you know
04:05that are going to deliver this
04:07help. I even personally set up a
04:09GoFundMe because I know
04:11that the money that we get
04:13can be utilized quickly
04:15and efficiently. Then we've got
04:17material donations. In here, we
04:19have a list of things that there usually
04:21is a huge demand for. A lot of people
04:23from abroad are also
04:25offering accommodation and shelters,
04:27which is also something that is needed.
04:29That's my mother's.
04:31She lent it to me. She's bedridden.
04:33Can I borrow it? I'm going
04:35to Ukraine.