Katarzyna Kręglicka and her daughter Wiktoria, 6, have been volunteers at the Caritas Logistics Center in Lublin for about a week. They stopped counting the days. After connecting with people on Facebook who were hosting Ukrainian refugees in Lublin, they collected and donated items these families needed. They asked around about where else help was needed.
The images of the war in Ukraine didn’t let Katarzyna sit still. She had to do something and contacted Caritas. At the Caritas logistics center, incoming relief supplies are sorted, packed and prepared for onward transport to Ukraine day and night. Katarzyna’s job currently only involves working on weekends, so she has some free time.
She is a make-up artist, but it is currently Lent and no weddings are being celebrated. From morning to night, she sorts relief goods together with Victoria. Katarzyna’s husband Raffo is currently at home taking care of their three-year-old daughter Emilia.
“Some days I also work at the border, helping elderly people and mothers with their children. I can’t sit around doing nothing and have to lend a hand myself”. Katarzyna
The older daughter Wiktoria is proud to support her mother. She does not miss kindergarten. It is boring there, she says. She has already distributed her own toys to Ukrainian children at the train station in Lublin in the first days of the war. Among them were some of her favorite toys, her mother says. Wiktoria helps sort, pack and label the packages. Sometimes she paints a heart on them for the people of Ukraine.
Philipp Spalek for Caritas