RAYA

Yesterday I wrote about a border wall between Poland and Belarus. For American readers, that story may evoke thoughts of the border between the U.S. and Mexico, some segments of which are also walled. Conceptually, a walled national border should work the same way as a white picket fence — the white fence keeps careless…

Yesterday I went to the Fundacja Ocalenie head office in Warsaw to sign paperwork. There is an “Agreement on the Performing of Volunteering Services”; an acknowledgement regarding processing of personal data by Ocalenie in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”); a couple of consents for Ocalenie to use photographs in which I…

In our training workshop yesterday, we spent time in break-out groups discussing possible activities we could organize to engage the refugee kids. The Ocalenie trainers asked each breakout group to prepare a simple plan for a hypothetical day at the “safe space for children” in Przemyśl. The plan was to include four phases: an opening…

During our training workshop yesterday, our Ocelanie trainers spent quite a bit of time at the beginning of the day talking with us about young children’s common reactions to crisis situations. They pointed out that children generally have a much narrower perspective than adults, so “little things” that a more mature person can easily see…

Today I attended the volunteer training seminar organized by Fundacjn Ocalenie (the “Rescue Foundation”). The seminar provided a thorough overview of the basic issues we will need to understand in order to work at the safe space for children (“CFS”) which the Rescue Foundation is operating at the reception center for Ukrainian war refugees in…