‘I have a lot of Ukrainian and Russian friends’

“I come from Poland and I did a bachelor’s in aerospace there, but I came to TU Delft for my master’s. I’m in my second year here at the Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management and I’m studying Complex Systems Engineering and Management. I’m in the middle of writing my thesis now.

I have a lot of Ukrainian and Russian friends and when I heard about the war, I felt so frustrated that I couldn’t do anything. I thought maybe I should go to Poland and volunteer, but Polish people are so motivated that there are already a lot of people doing that right now. So I decided to do something right here in Delft. I am on the board of Makerspace Delft as the Community Manager. We have a facility, a storage area, we have a community and that’s all we need to support Ukrainians. It’s the best we can do right now.

I started putting the news out and a Ukrainian girl who is a TU Delft alumna contacted me to see if we could join forces. We started sharing posts in our own networks and that’s how we increased our outreach. Then another Polish TU Delft student contacted me saying they were organising something for students so we decided to team up. I’ve been sharing the information about our initiative around the Kabeldistrict (in Dutch) community, second-hand stores and cafes in Delft. And the other group, Students for Ukraine, is really focussed on reaching the students.

We’ve been collecting things, only what is really needed right now, and we have two transports currently planned. Students for Ukraine, in cooperation with the TU Delta, is preparing a transport that will go directly to Ukraine, so things like bandages, medicines, things that are really needed there. The other transport that we are working on at Makerspace is in cooperation with TNP Fiscaaladvies (in Polish) in Rijswijk. It will go to the eastern border in Poland to one of the distribution centres that is helping refugees coming to Poland.

This will be more like a marathon than a sprint

From what I know from my friends and family in Poland and friends from Ukraine, this will be more like a marathon than a sprint, especially when it comes to food and things for children. A lot of families in Poland are taking refugee families into their homes but they can’t really afford to support two families on their wages. That’s why this kind of support is so important. Right now, we are really focussing on refugees on the border so warm clothes, sleeping bags, and dry foods are desperately needed.

Here at Makerspace, we are going to continue collections. Our community is also searching for other places to help like in Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia. They also need help, but we’re still negotiating these for future transports.

For me, part of the motivation to do something to help is the influence of my family. My grandparents remember growing up in Poland during the Second World War and as children they experienced this lack of literally everything. Maybe that is why I’m emotionally connected to the idea of helping. And maybe it’s also because a lot of my friends are helping right now. I would really like to encourage the people here in the Netherlands to take our community energy and use it to do something good.”

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Heather Montague / Freelance writer