I am writing this from a McCafe somewhere just outside of Vienna, after having dropped Kid 2 off at her swim meet to a parking lot at 7:30am. Kid 1’s plane was delayed and reportedly landed at 2:00am. Husband did that. We took turns sleeping. Like in the times many, many years ago when there were babies in the house. He went to bed and set an alarm for midnight, I went to bed and set an alarm for 6. Just when you think things cannot get any more nuts, they always do. But then again, you feel alive. Trade-offs.
Yesterday I spent most of my time answering messages in my phone from Ukrainians in Austria. My inbox is not down to zero, but it is better. I feel like we are making progress. But meeting people in person, which I continue to do for those families and women who sound the most vulnerable, is time consuming and exhausting. Yesterday, I met a half dozen women near Stephansdom. Each arrives and tells me her story. It was hot. Everyone is trying to remain optimistic but it is hard. Sometimes it feels like one hurdle after the next. The big dorm housing 400 Ukrainians is slowly being emptied. Many still do not know where they will go. They all seem to get conflicting messages about possible options. Some will simply be put on buses and sent to other parts of Austria. You can imagine how stressful this all is.
As I type this, the woman described below is texting me about Tolik, her ex-husband. Could they come to Vienna on Monday, I ask? No, that day the charity is coming. The charity is finally coming because for three weeks I have been describing the “hotel” and its conditions on social media. Ok, we agree to touch base Monday evening. She told me they didn’t receive their Ukrainian pensions yet this month. She mentioned food shortages in Kharkiv. It is hard to get one’s head around all of it — on the one hand there are no free train tickets back to Kyiv, on the other hand there are whispers everywhere that it is simply too early to return home to so many places across Ukraine. “Just because a rocket didn’t land today doesn’t mean it can’t land tomorrow,” she told me, very matter of factly.
And then I read this. Just half an hour ago. And I see the woman wrote me on May 15. And I didn’t open the message until May 21. And I feel terribly.
But I am one. And Mario is one. And what if we cannot see all the messages in time? How is it that we are the contact point official charities are telling Ukrainian women to write to when they don’t have enough money for food? Why are ALL the charities not offering grocery store gift cards? Anyone can go in a shop and buy them. I just bought another 7 cards this morning with some funds I received from donors this week. Another 15 cards arrived in my mailbox yesterday (thank you!). This is not a complicated endeavour. Anyone can replicate it.
Yesterday I also had coffee with another volunteer, my friend Nastya, originally from Moscow, now living in Budapest. Nastya has been housing Ukrainian refugees from day one, fundraising to pay for hotel rooms and apartments, opened a school for Ukrainian kids in Hungary, the list of her activities is enormous. And she looks at me and says, when will you take a holiday? And I thought, how can I think about taking a holiday when those women and kids in my inbox are counting on us to send them grocery cards? In other words — it’s all totally messed up. Nastya is right that we have to protect ourselves. It is totally messed up that so much of the heaving lifting is on the backs of individual volunteers. Like a fellow volunteer, also from Russia, who is rounding up as many used suitcases on wheels as she can buy on Willhaben etc to donate to the 400 Ukrainians who will have to leave the big dorm in Vienna very soon.
I have also been spending more time than I have on media stuff. I know media stuff is important because it educates the public both in Austria and abroad to the plight of Ukrainian refugees here right now. It also draws awareness to our project. But it is exhausting. And it seems every time I am speaking with a journalist or being asked to pose for photos (cannot stand this part tbh), there is a Ukrainian lost at that very moment looking for me for a Hofer card.
One family I tried three times to meet over two days and only managed on the third try. They applied via the website, but listed a hospital address. Mario, correctly, thought that was a bit odd and sent me the request. I reached out to the daughter. We agreed to meet. But she was late, and at that point a journalist arrived, we walked to a nearby cafe. The daughter was too shy to approach while I was in the meeting; she left. The next day, I named another meeting point, she also didn’t arrive. She then texted me a photo of her foot all bandaged up and said she just had an operation! But her mom would come later. I name a third time and place, and her mom can’t find me. By that point, a photographer is having me stand in the middle of the train station which is super embarrassing (you will see the look on my face), and the only thing I can think about the entire time is where is the mom? Finally, photos over, I text the daughter, who tells me what mom is wearing, and I find her, looking confused, standing in the middle of Wien HBF on a very crowded Friday afternoon. Yes, they really do live in a hospital, for now, as long as they are allowed to stay — a distant relative got them the room. There are apparently four Ukrainian families living in the ward. Unbelievable. All of it.
This is also why we use the post office.
Then I come home and I really think TGIF I can stop now, and a journalist writes me asking if I know any Ukrainian families. And I really want to scream. So here is my “how to talk to Ukrainians 101” for journalists in Austria and abroad.
1. Download Telegram and create for yourself a nickname, not just a phone number
2. Join all the Telegram groups in Austria for Ukrainians (there are several, including one for each Bundesland)
3. Join Facebook groups in Austria for Ukrainians (in both Russian and Ukrainian languages)
4. Do not think about approaching a Ukrainian for an interview without at least having yourself arranged for a translator (paid, Russian or Ukrainian speaking, usually they are all bilingual) and at least offered them a nice coffee or small meal in a cafe for their time.
5. Remember the person you are trying to interview most likely has no money left on their SIM card. Maybe you offer to buy one and put some money on it? They cannot make outgoing calls or texts. They are only reachable when connected to the internet.
6. Remember the person you are trying to interview has spent their life savings and doesn’t know where the next €100 are coming from so please be understanding that talking to the media is not their priority number one or even ten right now, and most are terribly frightened of things getting even worse if they speak publicly.
7. Know their names. Yes, there are a lot of Olgas and you will have to keep them all straight. You will manage.
8. Do not email. Use Telegram or Messenger. Some are on WhatsApp but not all. A lot of them have Viber which you don’t have.
9. Listen. Listen to what they are telling you. Show some emotion. Show that you actually care and are not just writing about it because your editor told you to find some Ukrainian moms.
10. No one ever turns down a Hofer €50 gift card.
That must be enough for today. Oh! Links. A few media articles with some little quotes from me running out of patience with everyone and everything.
https://www.diepresse.com/6141449/krisengipfel-zu-fluechtlingsproblemen-wo-es-hakt
In closing, I try to keep a little money set aside for “emergencies”, and that piggy bank is running a bit low. If you would like to help me fill it up ever so slightly, that would be much appreciated. These are usually last minute situations, a hotel room, a supermarket gift card that I must deliver in person that day, sometimes a pair of shoes — it really depends. Shoes by the way are a huge issue. My friend Nastya in Budapest is going to see if she can get Nike Europe to do a giant donation. A great idea if she can pull it off.
Finally, if you are in Austria, the best way to help us is to send us the physical gift cards for €50 each for any grocery chain here. All the mailing details you will find here: https://cards-for-ukraine.at/donate.
Mario raised a phenomenal amount of money (over €30,000!) in just week one of the website, but unfortunately demand for cards still far outstrips funding. Mario has been working like crazy to pre-order Hofer cards in bulk, mass distribute them to Ukrainians who applied via the website, and manage all the funding stuff (PayPal has not made any of that easy, to say the least). PayPal has actually made everything one giant clusterfuck (pardon my French). Needless to say, we are going to move to another funding solution, ASAP. I woke up at 6am to this message from midnight last night, just after Mario spent the entire day explaining to PayPal who we are and what we are doing so they would unlock the thirty thousand Euros you all donated:
We are trying our best. There are limitations as to what two people and a tiny team of volunteers can do. Mario has been jumping through superhuman hoops, while those getting paid to care for the refugees are …. I’ll let you all finish that sentence on your own.
There are just so many hungry Ukrainians in Austria. The government simply isn’t doing anything close to enough. Money, housing, jobs. My message is simple, but the response has been anything but.
Thank you for reading. Happy weekend. Thanks for not losing interest and for your continued support.
I can only imagine the frustration you mist feel with the constant headwinds you face. please try to stay positive However, those wore good articles. one was behind a paywall, sadly. On your donation site, maybe have a page where you feature the news of your efforts? I know, "good idea Christopher--But when to find the time?"
Last month a few Ukrainian journalists who had also requested support from readers on twitter via PayPal also faced problems with funds being blocked. Their posts got liked/retweeted a lot and PayPal resolved it quickly. The journalists attributed the speedy resolution to the scrutiny received from their Twitter followers. Maybe you can tag some of the Ukrainian journalists and they can highlight this issue?