District Governor, Barbara Bartle, talked to Lincoln East Rotary about building relationships. These relationships are very important as we become people of action and lift up Rotary. Relationships between other Rotary Clubs, Rotary Districts, people outside our club who might have a similar interest in helping with a club project, and other organizations whom we might want to partner with to get a project done.Barbara told us about her experiences in Ukraine while volunteering with "Operation Safe Harbor - Ukraine" which was started by Club 14 Steve Glenn. She mentioned that she didn't have a clue what to expect when she arrived in Warsaw, Poland. She discovered many non-profit organizations over their helping many of the refugees try to find housing, clothing, medical supplies and other items they might need. The Rotary Club of Warsaw started to partner with some of these organizations to help bring some help to the refugees. Many District Governor's started networking to help get donations and supplies to bring over to Warsaw to help. The Warsaw Rotaract Club helped with distributions.
Our own District 5650 donated $15,000 and with the help of many Rotarians was able to raise $150,000 within weeks. They applied for a Grant to get a cargo plane who would carry all the donated items over to Poland, but the cargo plane donated their time, so the extra money went to purchase more medical supplies.
Barbara told us about one women who left her home while snipers were shooting all around. She left all her children but the smallest, grabbed her purchase and got into a van and left. Barbara told us that when she went to the train station to help get the refugees to where they need to go for housing, there were no suitcases. She told us they worked to help these refugees get sustainable housing or even permanent housing. The relationship between a Rotarian from Nebraska helping a Rotary Club in Warsaw, Poland was built. There are about 3 million refugees currently Poland. About 16% of these refugees will make Poland their home for the rest of their lives. Can you imagine 10 to 30 thousand refugees coming into Poland each day and they speak only Russian, not Polish. Poland is trying to help grant many of them Polish citizenship, which means they will need more schools, housing and help them learn so that they can work to earn a living.
Barbara told us about Poland opening up a hospital, after COVID, and their they were able to transition those at the hotel over to the hospital for more suitable housing. They are using the hospital to help connect people for medical assistance, get them some education and offer classes so that they can be certified at the hospital. When the hotel opened for the refugees they housed about 1,000 refugees.
The President of the Warsaw Rotary Club and the Rotaract Club have been helping at the hospital They were able to contact some organizations to help with money to pay for the rooms. The hotel furnished a large breakfast, but the evening meal was at restaurants in the area. To help pay for the evening meals, many Rotary Clubs around the world helped fund those meals. The Warsaw Rotary Club is helping with an elementary school in Warsaw and the District Governor-Elect is helping to run a medical supply center for refugees from Ukraine. Many of the supplies are put into a warehouse and distributed by Rotarians.
Many of the supplies are by contacting the Profession Fellowship. Commitments that we make is by working with other organizations, other governments. A good example is Polio Plus where Rotary is working with a non-government organization such as the United Nations. We as Rotarians can learn from connecting through our own relationships with our neighbors, friends, other organizations, government officials, and putting our ACTIONS to good use.