“Desperate”: the testimony of those who went from Portugal to Poland to help
Chef Chakall was in Poland to prepare for refugees, and was in Poland for meals for refugees, and was in Barchu living in Portugal for 9 years and Roman border, which also in the Evening Edition of SIC Notícias.
Roman Barchuk, in Portugal since he was 9 years old, says that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “nightmare”. However, he highlights the solidarity of the people. The Ukrainian joined friends in a solidarity caravan and headed to the Polish border to pick up 28 people.
“We went to look for people from there who are with us and they warned us: ‘take them away from here’”, he says.
Roman Barchuk also picked up the first of nine. As a minor he had to cross the border with his mother, however, the woman returned to Ukraine by choice.
“Every day when I wake up, I want to believe that it didn’t happen”, says the Ukrainian, in an interview in the Evening Edition.
Roman wears a black, red, blue and yellow bracelet. He tells SIC Notícias that the black and red colors represent the nationalist forces that, since World War II, have been fighting for the independence of Ukraine. Black represents earth and red represents blood.
“It is these colors that Putin is so afraid of. They prevented the advance of Russian troops in the east of the country”,
Chef Chakall: “It couldn’t be worse”
Chef Chakall, who traveled to Poland for meals for refugees, says that “each of us can make a difference”. However, he considers that there is a lack of support from the European Union.
She reports that she saw caravans of “helpless women” and children with cold.
“It couldn’t be worse. Anyone who has children feels something,” she says, describing the “desperate” scenario.
The chef says that the first floor of the Warsaw train station was just for children. “It’s impossible to imagine,” he says.
Chef Chakall was in Poland for meals for refugees. He left Lisbon on the 8th of March.
He traveled in a van, loaded with food and essential goods, such as blankets.
Along the way, he stopped in at least two cities. In one of them, in Varovia – the Polish capital -, the Chefu for the firefighters who are receiving the displaced from the war.
Chakall arrived in Chelm, a town near the Ukrainian border, on March 10.
During two shelters the refugees who were staying in a church. He cooked over 10,000 meals.
He returned to Portugal with four refugees: a woman and three children.