Help us Help Them | OW People Helping Refugees in Warsaw

Help us Help Them is my private initiative to help Ukrainian Refugees that I meet almost every day now. I would like to ask for your financial support to be able to assist those families in surviving and finding a new place to live until the war ends.

Some of you know me personally, others might see this fundraiser shared by people they know. My name is Natalia Dabrowiecka and I'm lucky to work at Oliver Wyman Warsaw since 2015. Ever since this war stared I've been working around the clock trying to support individual families and I want to continue - but for that I need your help.

My plan is to share this fundraiser primarily with Oliver Wyman colleagues in other countries and also create a mailing list of all the donors to whom (if they wish) I will send updates every once in a while to share progress on the situation of specific families in my care. Below I will describe the people who I'm trying to help Today. If the amount raise exceeds the needs I will gladly continue helping and take other refugees under OUR care.

Family 1

At the break of war I went to distant neighbors who I know are Ukrainian. I told them to contact me if they need any help for their relatives fleeing war. One day later they called begging for help because they already had 3 families living in their small apartment and a family of four people was on their way to Warsaw. I asked a family member of mine to take them in for a few weeks, committing to pay for all food and other expenses. We needed to buy a few things such as: blankets, pillows, food for a week etc. The family was able to find a new home in Germany and they already left Warsaw. It was a woman Luba, with her 12 year old daughter Zlota and two grandparents. Amazing, beautiful people! They are now safe in their new home and sent me a heartwarming message to thank for the help they received

Family 2 & 3

On Sunday March 5th a good friend of mine from Brussels contributed 550 Euro. I was able to book 4 beds in a hostel in Warsaw at Lwowska street. I went to the Western Railway Station in Warsaw where there are tens of thousands of people arriving everyday from Ukraine. All of them are very scared to even accept help from strangers. I was able to find two brave mothers and each of them was traveling with a 17teen year old son. The boys are high school friends from the polish school in Lviv with very strong bonds to Poland. The real estate situation in Warsaw is impossible but i was able to find them an apartment through my personal network. After a few nights at the hostel I was also able to find temporary homes w with great polish families. Tatiana is 48, her son Aleks will be turning 18teen in a few weeks. She owns a small boutique shop with clothes in Lviv, has higher education and left behind and her 25 year old son (to join the army) and her mother. Zenia is 35 her son's name is Pawel. They left Pawel's father behind because he will be joining the army to fight. Zenia also has higher education and a small shop of her own in Lviv. The idea is for them to stay here until the war ends, and the boys will hopefully be able to pass their A-level exams and do their studies in Warsaw. Aleks wants to study medicine, Pawel political science. Hopefully here they will be safe. We were already able to find a job for Tatiana (trial period at a local bakery). They both speak polish because they have polish roots. Thanks to the generosity of my friend from Brussels some expenses have already been paid but we need to raise around 2000 euro for them to cover the remaining part of the apartment caution and 3 months of rent. After that I'm certain they will be able to care for themselves onwards.

Family 4

LGBT couple fleeing Zaporoze in Ukraine. The girls are Eugenia 27, and Katerina 24 and their 16 year old cat. They are now in Warsaw in a temporary home with good people that took them in for 2 weeks. We need to find them an appartment (very difficult task) or a room for rent (possibly in an LGBT friendly home). They’re also looking for any type of work but they do not speak polish. Eugenia speaks a little English. I'm giving her my bicycle today so that she can start working with Uber Eats to gain some financial autonomy because all they have is the cat and 60 euros. We would probably also need around 2000 euros for rent and food for the girls to be able to start supporting themselves with time.

Family 5

Luba came to Poland with her two daughters. One is 12, and the elder one Katerina is 16teen and has severe Autism. They are now in a temporary home in the country side near Bielsko Biala but there are no specialized schools for children with autism there. Luba is very stressed because she sees her sick child regress in all the hard earned progress she has done over the years. They are from Winnica in Ukraine. I'm very actively looking for an apartment for them and contacting pedagogical institutions to find specialized help for her. Luba doesn’t speak Polish or English yet is determined to work. Personally I think it is completely unrealistic and I would like to help her financially so that she can focus on her children. I'm not sure if in her current state of panic she will be able to understand my point of view but I'm also trying to get her psychological help in Ukrainian language to help her calm down and work through her current trauma. The stress is also related to the fact that they left behind a 94 year old grandma who couldn’t travel and is now being cared for only by neighbors. My estimation is that we would need more that 2000 euro because I don’t think they can become autonomous in their current situation.

Family 6

Grandmother, mother and two children ( 9 year old girl and 2 year old boy) fleeing from the surroundings of Kiev have just arrived in Warsaw. They are being taken care of by a colleague of mine Ewelina. They arrived on Saturday April 2nd. They are temporarily staying at Ibis hotel ( paid by OW) but we need to help them find an apartment they could live in. They’re not wealthy people so we will need to collect around 2 500 euros to find them a place and help them settle. I will update their pictures shortly. We already got them toys and coloring books and a friend of mine is donating a trolley for the little boy.

That is it for now. If I gather more money than needed for those families I will support others wither with housing and food, or support big refugee centers with canned meat etc. Not to far from my home there is a center with 10k refugees sleeping in one big warehouse.

If you can help me help them I will be forever grateful.

If you would like to receive updates on my ongoing progress for those and future families please send me an email to helpushelpthem.warsaw@gmail com and I will create a mailing list and send you updates.

This portal is the only one available for international donations to Poland and it has a 4% fee. If you would like to support us financially but not through this portal please email me at [email protected] and I will share bank details for a direct wire either in Euro, USD or PLN.

I have set up dedicated bank accounts in USD, EUR and PLN to be able to keep track of all donations, and to make sure that the exchange rates are optimal. I will also be keeping all receipts as i might use them for tax justification.