After more than a million Ukrainian refugees have been taken in by Poland, Sarah, Duchess of York, has travelled to the country to organise help during the “heartbreaking” situation.
Ferguson posted a series of photos on social media on 17 and 18 March detailing her visit to Poland and the work her charity Sarah’s Trust is doing to help refugees from Ukraine.
“The invasion of Ukraine is heartbreaking to watch,” she posted. “So many families are being separated and displaced.”
Ferguson was met by Warsaw’s mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and spoke with Ukrainian families who had crossed the border to safety.
Sharing a video showing dozens of stacked boxes full of supplies, she said Sarah’s Trust was “doing all it can to help” and had “sent three articulated lorries with supplies from UK donors” so far.
Sarah, the Duchess of York added that roughly 1.7 million Ukrainian refugees have come to Poland since the conflict began — and many of these are children.
Sharing that Mayor Trzaskowski showed her around some of the buildings providing housing for refugees, the Duchess learned “how an extra 9,000 children have arrived in Warsaw’s schools over the last 10 days and there’s a real shortage of teachers.”
“Warsaw needs our help,” she added.
Warsaw’s mayor, in turn, retweeted the Duchess’s message, posting, “Glad to have you here, @SarahTheDuchess. Thank you for highlighting the message we have been trying to share with the world for the past few days.”
Ferguson also travelled outside of Warsaw to the Rudy and Kuznia Raciborska villages to meet more Ukrainian refugees.
These families included a woman named Oksana who, at six months pregnant, escaped to Poland with her seven-year-old son and another mother named Olga and her two young daughters.
“Crying, they tell me how grateful they are for the kindness of the Polish people, and they say they will try their hardest to do their best whilst here,” Ferguson wrote. “But they see their stay as temporary as, more than anything, they long to return home to their country, to their husbands who are fighting for the survival of Ukraine.”
Sharing that she’s had a fond place in her heart for these villages since 1992, the Duchess said she “wanted to honour the smaller towns and villages who haven’t hesitated in opening their doors to the Ukrainian people.”
Sarah’s Trust, which was founded by the Duchess in 2020 after she stepped down as founder patron of Street Child, aims to support vulnerable people around the world and brings all of Ferguson’s charitable causes under one roof.
