Today was my first day “on the job” at the Ocalenie Foundation safe space for children in the Przemyśl Refugee Reception Point / Humanitarian Aid Center. It was everything I had expected and more.
I was happily surprised to find the space is actually much larger than I expected. I had been told that it was only about 300 square feet, but additional area was opened up early in August, so now we have about 2000 square feet. That’s actually enough space to play some ball sports and running games, like tag. Also, someone recently donated three little kiddie bikes, so the older boys were having a fun time zipping around in tight circles. The space is divided exactly in half, with one side carpeted and set up with craft tables and play stations, and the other side just an open space with tile floor.
We had 35 kids register over the course of the day. They are allowed to come and go as they wish, because the children’s safe space along with the rest of the reception point / aid center is entirely contained within the former shopping mall building, which has tight security at the entrance, so there is little risk of children going missing. Most of the kids stayed with us for most of the day, although I think many of them went over to the cafeteria for a while around mid-day. Ages ranged from as about one year old to about 12 years old (although the one-year old was only there for a little while, and I think his mother stayed the entire time). There was a two-year old toddler there all morning, marching fearlessly from one play station to another amidst jumping kids, whizzing bicycles and hurtling projectiles. Apologies for the battlefield imagery — the projectiles in this case were just various toys that the kids were flinging around with gleeful abandon. However, I was very touched — imagining a radically different future for the little tyke if her parents hadn’t decided to flee the war.
Although there were only 35 kids (so almost 60 square feet for each kid), the entire space was humming with activity for pretty much the whole day. I’ve never seen more energetic, high-spirted and good-natured kids in my entire life. They seemed to be having the time of their lives. And that’s just fantastic — if these refugee kids feel like they are at the best summer camp ever, that’s a credit to the Polish Red Cross, the Ocalenie Foundation and everyone else involved with the Przemyśl Humanitarian Aid Center for doing an excellent job.