Alen - Part 2
In my most recent post I introduced you to Alen, one of the first workers I met outside Galeria Plaza, an old mall in Krakow, Poland, that now serves as home to over 300 Ukrainian refugees. Although not Ukrainian himself, Alen lives at the center and works as a chef with the World Central Kitchen, serving daily meals to not only his fellow residents, but to an additional 1000 Ukrainians who have fled to Poland.
Alen may not be Ukrainian, but he has a special connection with the people here since he was once a refugee himself. I wrote about Alen’s childhood experience of war in my last post--how he and his family were trapped in their home city of Sarajevo for three years before they were able to get out of the country and into a refugee camp in Slovenia. His parents stayed and made Slovenia their new home, but Alen moved around, eventually landing in Spain, where he has worked for the last seven years with young people and adults struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.
I met Alen a couple hours after arriving at Galeria Plaza. After interviewing another volunteer, they told us we needed to speak to Alen. When I asked him what brought him to Poland, he said, “The situation and memories. When this war started, I was in Spain. It was February 24th when I was watching TV and seeing what was going on and immediately I had this desire and wish to come help. For one month, I listened to this voice inside of me and fought every day whether or not to go. After one month I decided to go.” When he told his team in Spain that he was leaving, they asked him “But where are you going? You don’t know anyone or the language. You’ve never been to Poland.” Alen replied, “I don’t know; I just need to go.”
He proceeded to board a train to Poland in the middle of March. Intending to head to the border towns of Przemysl and Medyka, he arrived in Krakow only to discover that the next bus was not until 4pm that afternoon. Why not use the time to ask around Krakow and see if he could find information about volunteering? He spoke to several people at the train station and was told that he would need to fill out a form and someone would get back to him in 2-3 days. That wasn’t good enough for Alen. He wanted to help right away.
Then someone told him about World Central Kitchen. Come to find out, they were opening a tent at a refugee center in Krakow and in need of a chef. Well, it just so happens that Alen is a chef by trade and had worked many years in the restaurant business. He never got on that 4pm bus to the border but headed straight to the refugee center at Galeria Plaza. There he met with the leaders of the refugee center and explained his situation to them. He told them right away that he was there to help for as long as he was needed.
In that brief period of time, Alen had found the perfect place to make a difference. For a month before leaving, he had tried finding a way to help from his home in Spain but with no success. “I filled out many applications on the internet and no one responded to me. Even World Central Kitchen online says that they are full, but when you get on the ground, the situation is a little bit different.” Sometimes, you just need to pack your bags and go.
That’s all well and good, in theory, but he would need a place to live, and the Hilton across the street wasn’t really an option if he planned to stay indefinitely. The Galeria Plaza, however, was. The leader took him over to the accommodations center to see if they could provide him a private room. The only problem was that there really were no private rooms in the repurposed shopping mall. They did, however, find him a cot in a corner with a little bit of privacy. I thought to myself, says Alen, “Okay if they live there, I can live here. I can tell you now, that if they offered me the nicest apartment at the Hilton, I wouldn’t want it. Because I now get to spend time with the kids and families.”
Because of the current order of the Ukrainian government that no men 18-60 can leave the country, women and children make up the overwhelming majority of the refugee population. Alen has found himself being embraced by the children and families as a sort of father figure. “I organize things for the kids and create things for them. For example, a volunteer family was here and donated some money. We created Tiramisu for all the kids and surprised them with it. They miss their father and for all these kids here I am their second father right now. The kids now come out every day to help me when I’m working at the kitchen.” He also used the money to organize a belly dancing event with a Ukrainian woman who is a professional dancer. The joy brought to the faces of the children and parents for those few hours was priceless--small moments of normality and joy during such an awful time.
Alen’s experience in the Slovenian refugee camp prepared him for his time here. “For me,” he says, “it’s important that if I can spend time with someone for five or ten minutes or even an hour and help them forget, to show them that they can cry with me, that most importantly they can feel that I am here to help them in any way that is possible--not just to help them in material ways, but to know I am here as another person just trying to help and be there for them.”
Alen wonders where the bigger organizations are that could provide more activities to occupy both the children and adults. In their absence, he does what he can. “If I go to the streets and pick up a piece of trash, someone will see me and do the same and it will expand.” He sees this principle in action every day. “I started English lessons here a few weeks ago and two days ago I saw the kids tell another kid to go to Alen and say ‘Give me one apple.’ You see, the kids started to teach each other.”
Two months into his journey, Alen does not regret his decision to pack his bags and take a train to Krakow. “Each day I’m more excited knowing that I did not make the wrong step and I am in the place that I need to be. I am very glad to be here to help. I’ve discovered some gifts and talents since being here. The connection with the Ukrainians, I did not know would happen. I have three friends here and they said to me first, ‘Look what you have brought here, some positive energy to the kids.” One of those friends has encouraged him to start his own organization, something he has taken to heart and now begun to do.
“Often we ask ourselves, what can I do? Start with the small things, one person can reach another person and this person can reach another person and now you have a group and this group is a team. And so you have the power of one.”
Tune in on Thursday to read Lora’s story, a refugee now living in Poland with her two sisters and seeking to make it a home. She shares more with us about the year 2014 and her perspective on how the war really started during the Revolution of Dignity.
So moving and inspiring!