Although news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is growing more grim every day, the carnage has inspired people from all over the world to step up and offer their support to both refugees fleeing Ukraine and those who remain inside the beleaguered nation.
And while there’s an impact we can all make to help citizens get through this crisis, it’s impossible to overstate the difference that volunteers in the nations that border Ukraine like Poland, Moldova, Slovakia, and Romania are making.
Whether they’re providing food , shelter, transportation , medical aid, legal and translation services, or simply comfort , these volunteers are instrumental in ensuring survivors keep up the strength to make it through their worst nightmares coming true.
And one of them started doing her part to shed light on one of history’s worst humanitarian disasters when she was just a little girl.
When she was three years old, Oliwia Dabrowska stood out as the Girl in the Red Coat in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning movie ‘Schindler’s List.’
Not only was her signature red jacket the only splash of color in the otherwise black-and-white film, but her character showed the scope of Holocaust atrocities and the destruction of innocence that affected children experienced during the 1940s.
But for Dabrowska, her character was a symbol of hope in one of the darkest chapters of human history and it’s clear that the now 32 year old is taking personal inspiration from what she stood for.
It is for this reason that she posted an image of the girl on Instagram with a filter that makes her coat blue and the rest of the scene yellow to represent Ukraine’s flag.
As she put it in the caption , “She was always the symbol of hope. Let her be it again.”
But in the days since this post, Dabrowska has shown that her passion for helping Ukrainians isn’t something she only wants to express through symbolism.
As she explained in a separate post from March 13, Dabrowska and her “brave mother” have been volunteering at the Polish-Ukrainian border and helping to find new homes for Ukrainian refugees as well as bringing them to these locations.
Her posts have also asked for monetary donations to cover food, fuel, funds to secure homes for refugees, and products to comfort incoming children.
In a more recent post from April 6, she mentioned that one of her followers has donated 50 first aid kits.
But while Dabrowska has found it difficult to even describe the horrors she has seen and heard about, she did share one affirming story that makes it clear what kind of difference she and her mother are making.
In her original post that detailed her work, she mentioned one family who came to her pleading for transportation to a city near the German border on the day that Russian forces started bombing the city of Yavoriv.
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In DaBrowska’s words, “Well, usually we transport refugees in our area, but this time we couldn’t just say ‘no.’ They were desperate to get to their sister. Those kids… my God, I can barely hold back my tears.”
h/t: Instagram | @oliwia.dabrowska_
