Ukranian children whose parents have died due to Putin’s invasion

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YOUR donations of vital aid for Ukrainian people reached a depot for orphans and refugees late yesterday (Wednesday) – and volunteers running the operation described the New Journal’s visit to hand over 3.5 tons of aid a “miracle”.

Last week, we asked for your help to fill a truck for people fleeing the war in Ukraine – and, as ever, our generous readers stepped up. The incredible response from Camden communities meant we could have filled our aid van three times over.

The New Journal’s Dan Carrier with Tact employees Olga Pilch and Ivona Zaborowska who are working with refugees at an orphanage (above) where some of the aid donated will go

And as well as your generosity, Camden businesses have mucked in. Building firm Murphy handed over the keys to a vehicle for the 2,500-mile round trip. Drop-off points were set up at our Camden Road offices, The Dartmouth Arms pub in NW5, the Archway Market, Camley Street-based food company Alara and the Castlehaven Community Centre.

Film company Fulwell 73’s staff collected items and help materialised from further afield.

Scotia Windows, a firm based in Ayrshire, Scotland, got wind of the New Journal’s campaign. They not only contributed financially but then refilled the van in Poland with yet more supplies once we had delivered the gifts from Camden. Company director Martin Smith volunteered to join the trip and share the driving.

Parents at Brookfield School in Highgate Newtown helped box up the hundreds of items we received. Other firms chipped in: music company Key Production donated goods and funds – and put the New Journal in touch with Tact, a record pressing and packaging firm based in Boleslaw, between the Polish cities of Krakow and Katowice.

Tact employees Olga Pilch and Ivona Zaborowska have helped lead their neighbourhood’s response for refugees, and received your donations of food, toys, clothes, medicines, medical equipment, toiletries, blankets and other vital supplies.

Setting out from our Camden Road headquarters on Tuesday morning, the two-day drive saw your donations head through the Channel Tunnel and race across France, Belgium, the Netherlands and into Germany.

As night fell on Tuesday, landmark buildings along the European highways heading east were bathed in lights of the yellow and blue colours of the Ukrainian flag.

It was a sign of how close this war really is. After a brief rest in the early hours of Wednesday in Dortmund, we set off again as the sun rose to cross into Poland via the German border town of Gorlitz. And while warm spring sunshine cast the Polish countryside in glorious light, there were ominous reminders of what is happening to the east.

Camouflaged long-loader lorries, used to transport tanks and heavy weaponry, were travelling steadily along the motorways. Our first stop was to meet Ms Pilch and Ms Zaborowska in Boleslaw.

Stacking the van with your donations before we left Camden

They have been volunteering at train stations to meet traumatised refugees as they arrive and have helped establish a supply depot. Among those who they support – and where some of our aid will go – are 100 Ukrainian orphans who fled for their lives as bombs fell. Ms Pilch said watching the plight of innocents is something she will never be able to forget.

She said: “These are people caught up in a war that they have no responsibility for. There has been an automatic, collective response and I am very proud of that.” When the invasion began last month, the pair stood at Krakow train station to greet confused, shell shocked women and children as they stepped on to the platform with whatever they had managed to carry and no idea what to do next.

Ms Pilch said: “I am a mother, and to see another mother arrive with a baby in her arms, two five-year-olds walking beside her, with just a plastic bag of possessions. I could not imagine how they got here and what they have been through. It does not bear thinking about. It has been very, very difficult.” Those who have left their homes and lives, their husbands, their sons and brothers behind have been greeted with kindness by their Polish neighbours. Ms Pilch said: “I watched an old lady and an old man appear with a box of sandwiches they had made to hand out. This is what we have been doing.” It is an example of the support offered by individuals, clubs, associations and groups of friends, she added.

Ms Zaborowska said: “Our government has not been as involved as the people. We have started our own action groups to help.

In Krakow, young people have rushed to to do all they possibly can and have been using Instagram to co-ordinate efforts.” They said a joke had been doing the rounds among Ukrainians that they asked the Polish youth if they could provide them with a live dinosaur – and half an hour later, they’d appear with two, such were the miracles they were working.

The couple thanked the New Journal, adding our arrival on Wednesday evening was another miracle. They said: “We did not expect this – to get so much help from so far away, it’s pretty crazy, pretty miraculous. We are incredibly grateful. It is overwhelming to know how people in a far away place called Camden care. It sends a message that there is good out there and we are not facing this alone.”

The refugees need everyday basics – after fleeing the bombs with only what they could carry

The war is very close to home for the people of Boleslaw. As well as the memories shared by their grandparents and parents of the Second World War, and the two million refugees now in Poland, they have seen first-hand how this war has hit their many friends of Ukrainian descent.

A popular and talented tattoo artist called Oleg, who has lived in the town for many years, is from the Ukrainian south. Ms Pilch described how her friend had enjoyed spending his spare time honing his aim at a shooting range, which for many years was an enjoyable and harmless hobby. A keen shot with a rifle, Oleg left his parlour a month ago and is now serving as a sniper for the Ukrainian army in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Ms Pilch’s concern for her friend is telling, the sorrow she feels is obvious and overwhelming. Sadly, she saud, it is just one of the many tragedies she has watched play out over the past month.

While Ms Pilch and Ms Zaborowska are doing all they can, they too are victims of this awful war

. “It has been a very long month,” added Ms Pilch. “I dream each night about war. I dream each night about the Ukrainian people. “The first day I went to the station, it was so overwhelming I felt sick for days. But we must all do our best to help, or feel powerless and your efforts are a prime example of this.”