Almuñécar student in Poland: "I never imagined that during my Erasmus I would experience a refugee crisis"

Twenty-year-old Tatiana Ramírez from Almuñécar went to Rzeszów in Poland in September last year on the EU’s Erasmus scheme. She is now helping thousands of Ukrainians at a refugee camp in the city where she lives, which is 100 kilometres from Ukraine.

One of her classmates in the student residence is of Ukrainian origin, although she lives in Valencia. The day Russia invaded Ukraine, the girl’s grandmother called her granddaughter in fear as shots could be heard. It was then that Tatiana and her friends knew they could not stand by and do nothing. At least 50,000 refugees have already passed through Rzeszów, Tatiana explained.

"We thought we couldn't do anything for our classmate’s family, but we could for the thousands of people who pass through here on their migration route," she explains. The young woman is helping in a camp that has been set up next to the hospital. She sorts lorries full of clothes, shoes and food arriving from different parts of Europe. She also makes the beds and distributes the food to the families, who can stay for a maximum of 48 hours in the centre.

"In the morning I go to class to continue my biology degree, and in the afternoon, from 2pm to 9pm, we go to the supermarket to buy supplies and lend a hand at the shelter," she explained. "The fatigue is more mental than physical, but it's worth it. We can't just sit back and do nothing.”

Witnessing sadness and loss, but also strength and survival is hard for Tatiana. "The other day a little girl came up to me, she was talking to me and I couldn't understand her. Her mother told me she was asking me where her father was. They had been separated in Kyiv and they wanted to get to Berlin," she told Ideal with her voice trembling.

In addition to the volunteer work, she and a group of 15 friends have been collecting money to donate to humanitarian causes. They started collecting money on Monday and have already raised 18,000 euros, of which 7,000 have already been used to buy food and hygiene products.