Testimony of a Polish Scout on the ground

My name is Franek Przepiórka, I’m 23 years old, I live in Warsaw.

1. I’m coordinating our service in Warsaw. We are participating in many actions, such as collecting goods for Ukrainian people, helping them in the city’s temporary staying places. We are also sending our scouts at the border - they are preparing warm soup and giving it to the people who just crossed our border. My role is to inform scouts about ongoing actions and services where we can help. I’m also responsible for our cooperation with other scouting organizations. Those are my duties as a coordinator, but I’ve also participated in some actions - we were collecting and packing food and clothes in Otwock and I’ve also helped with packing a truck which went to Lwów in Ukraine.

2. Being a Pole means being aware of our history. We know from our grandfathers what the war with Russia means. Some politicians said that “Poles are doing for Ukraine what nobody did to us in September 1939” and I think that this sentence is describing our situation very truly. I’ve decided to participate in helping Ukrainian people because I see their pain, their tragedy and their innocence. Their lives are ruined, they have seen bombs falling on their homes. I can’t imagine how much they are suffering. We simply have to help, for me, and for everyone in Poland, it is more than obvious.

3. Scouting and faith has a very significant role in this service. I’m writing these answers on Monday 7th of March. Today our Holy Mother Church says to us “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” (Mt 25, 35-36). I have nothing more to say about the relation between our faith and helping Ukraine. As a scout I’m saying hello to other scouts with the word “Czuwaj!” (Be prepared!). We are prepared to help. Scouting in many ways reminds us that we have to help everybody in need. Now we just do.