A perfect storm (Day 78)
All across Austria the same story is playing out. Ukrainians who arrived here in March have run out of the money, their savings, they brought with them. This is already a crisis amongst us.
I just realised I have not written in THREE days and this is supposed to be a daily Substack. I am really sorry. Last night my two oldest friends (mom and daughter) from Moscow were in town and I was so tired I couldn’t even meet up with them (we did have a lovely lunch together today). My day to day has morphed from helping at the train station (which I did do, each day for the lunchtime rush, not not today) to spending nearly all of my waking hours on grocery gift card distribution.
Procurement (using donations), communication with Ukrainians in Austria over Telegram, Messenger, WhatsApp, even Twitter (they find me everywhere!), addressing envelopes, stamping envelopes, running to the post, opening my own post, repeating the process when cards arrive from generous donors all over Austria. Cards come in from all over Austria and go out across the entire country. I haven’t done a full count yet but my back of the envelope calculation (I do write down every name) is something between 500-600 cards of €50 each distributed already. Which is phenomenal, an estimated €25-30,000 of direct grocery aid so far to Ukrainians in Austria. A project that was only born, sort of by accidental experiment, on April 19. It hasn’t even been a month.
In between doing all that, I have been trying to give journalists the time they ask for. Which is time consuming, but important. I then try and give them Ukrainian contacts. This is also time consuming, because for many obvious reasons not everyone is willing to talk. I am sometimes frustrated with the pace of the whole thing. I get a bunch of inquiries and then you wait and hope a story emerges…you keep hoping.
On Tuesday I translated for an hour for a group of women living in a dorm housing over 400 Ukrainian’s in Vienna’s 11th district. It was a great interview. One woman opened her mouth and just kept talking, describing the entire comedy of errors (which isn’t funny but she made it sound that way, she even found a way to laugh despite all the sadness). One anecdote that stuck (there were hundreds): her 14 year old son cannot attend school yet because a bureaucrat switched his first and last names on his newly-issued Austrian “blue card” ID.
You might remember her from these “dinner” photos:
Funny after I tweeted out dinner (see above), lunch, and dinner, it looks like someone got a phone call, and a very small portion of fresh vegetables and even some kind of apple cake appeared:
Earlier on Tuesday, I met a young woman living in another dorm, this one in the 3rd district, where they do receive their social payments (a merger €215 per month for food) and are able to cook for themselves in shared kitchens. However, she told me something else, something that left me utterly speechless.
This is totally insane and very concerning.
So that was Tuesday. And between Monday and Tuesday I think I sent out / hand delivered something like 100+ supermarket gift cards of €50 each over those two days alone. Plus McDonalds cards for the kids of the women I meet in person. For those living in dorms. A little tiny gesture.
Wednesday, I arrived to meet a group of women who I mistakenly thought were living in a monastery (turns out to be a “hotel” now only for refugees across the street from a monastery). They travelled by train all the way to Vienna from rural Lower Austria because their kids are hungry, not getting enough fresh fruit, no yogurts, no eggs. Do read the whole thread (sorry these days a lot of my observations are ending up on Twitter first). It includes the next shocking story of abuse (forced unpaid labor) I heard yesterday morning from a Ukrainian woman who had been in Vienna with her teenage son and is now happily in Burgenland.
At the train station yesterday, the three moms from the rural hotel arrived early, and eager to talk. This is their story:
And this is the fundamental problem, because they are surely not alone in such a predicament:
I got this very happy message from the hotel today!
Also, yesterday, was a nightmare at the train station. So many people. Not enough translators.
This is the problem. There are 3 different groups of Ukrainians all lining up for train tickets, often all at the same time. As a volunteer, you really want to help the 1st group, you help the 2nd group who are often elderly people who just cannot take it here in Europe anymore, and want to go home, and you wish group 3 would stop travelling around for free and clogging up the line for everyone else.
Today I thought I would skip the train station and try and get some of my own stuff done. My inboxes are exploding and as soon as I answer 10 messages another 30 appear. It’s like permanently drowning.
Just as I was running out the door, again, at noon, I got a call, a mom begging for a hotel room for tonight. I called the one down my street, asked for a room, promised to swing buy to pay tomorrow morning. Thankfully, they are already used to me sending them Ukrainian families for one night. Usually arriving by car, usually just passing through, usually on their way to Germany. In this case, mom, dad, and two young kids. I take the money from the overall donation pot. I think of these as the one-offs which pop up often.
I have a list of one-offs, sometimes it’s cash, sometimes it’s something very specific. Tomorrow I will meet the mother of a 19 year-old daughter in a wheelchair at a special shop in a private hospital I discovered by accident today when I was going to get my own eyes checked. Rather than wait for the family to go through Austria’s bureaucratic circus, I want to help buy them at least a few pieces of basic home equipment. If swiping the credit card is the fastest way to make that happen, I think it’s a justifiable expense. Peace of mind for one family. At least this item will be ticked off their list.
Today I was meeting my Russian friends, but just before, I met three moms in person who are all living in group housing in Vienna. All three different addresses. I ask them to meet in person because I am always nervous they might not receive their post. This is what they told me:
One of the moms, living in the 12th district, with a elementary-school aged son who she says barely eats (I am being vague on purpose as she asked several times to remain anonymous), sent me a text she said I could translate. I hope that by sharing her words directly you all will get a better feel for the lived daily life experience for many Ukrainians here in Austria.
First, she sent me these photos of the food they are served. This dorm houses 78 people. They are not allowed to cook themselves. They are considered “fed” three times a day and therefore not eligible for state money beyond the “pocket money” of €40 per month (yes, you read that right).
"At first there was meat two times in April, pieces of beef. By the weekend, we are served pasta and rice, they are sour and uncooked, and beetroot but not fresh, from the package. At first it was just rice and vegetables. There was chicken yesterday. Today there was no meat. Over 1.5 months, there was once real fish, it was even red fish. Twice during the month of April they gave us tuna spread from a can. Dinner is usually a thick soup with some kind of stew, a puree soup most often, like tomato (it is as if they squirted out tomato paste and added cream). The children, don't eat more than half of what is offered. I can for €11/day, from May €12/day, for two people, really buy everything we would need to eat properly. Today dairy, tomorrow meat-fish, the day after tomorrow I would buy vegetables and fruit, and we would get by. It is really so hard to buy the cheap fish for €3/kilo? They should look and not buy any bean products because no one eats them. The organizations said they receive €5.50 per day per person, and they spend €1.50/person/day on breakfast, now €2/breakfast per person and €40/month pocket money, €10 entertainment. We got €70 in April for clothes. Thanks! But now it's summer and we need clothes again. We aren't allowed to get jobs that pay more than €110/month. We are only allowed to go visit relatives for a maximum of 4 days, we are not allowed to leave for a week. Although we would like to go to the seaside in the summer. A lot of people invite us now. They do not force us to work. We have shifts: tidy up the kitchen, help the chef on certain days, when he has a day off to hand out or warm up the food, to wipe down the counters. To clean the corridors. To clean downstairs. There is a schedule. But that's ok to tidy up after yourself. We aren't complaining. You asked about the budget that is spent on us, and this is what I would suggest: maybe they could get a Ukrainian chef, who knows what we eat and spend that budget on the right products. We have tea, coffee, corn flakes, oatmeal. There are washing machines and fridges. Please make this anonymous and don't name the organization. I already told you there isn't enough food. Also! The Ukrainians who are here have debts. We can't survive without them. And banks are still calculating interest. Annual interest rate of 60%. I worked in a bank. Many, like me, are also entrepreneurs. We have to pay a flat tax of €45! Everything adds up, and we cannot work because we signed papers we won't earn more than €110/month. The banks calculate the interest rate on the remaining debt, and it grows and grows. And now one cancelled the tax on entrepreneurs in Ukraine. We will have to pay that too..."
Gosh this is way too long. Sorry. Three days is a lot to make up for! I would like to end by asking you to read this thread, which surprisingly went kind of viral because I literally wrote it sitting in my car in a Hofer parking lot at 8am this morning. Here is a web link to the whole thread:
I now kind of wonder if the journalists didn’t call any more later this afternoon and tonight because they are all super busy interviewing Ukrainians or if someone hinted I shouldn’t be given interview space. This is a small country, after all. In any case, I am ready to talk, to share what I am hearing, to share what is inside my iPhone which works 24/7 even though I cannot. I will not shut up as long as Twitter lets me keep writing. I will try to make time to write, but as you see, it is time away from processing grocery cards. Which I do not want to be doing forever! I want the government to give these women their dignity back ASAP.
But I know the message is important. The message is simple:
Money. Housing. Jobs.
Thank you for reading. Sorry this is mega long!
Is there a way i could help address envelopes for gift cards? I could address, stamp and mail to you to fill? Just wondering how i can be of service to you in your extraordinary work.
Doing what I can on my end to tag ministers and political officials in my replies. Keeping up the subtle pressure. If you have any ideas of how to direct my replies, DM me, and I am happy to be the "bad cop." --christopher