The best part of my day — apart from the personal interactions with Ukrainians at the train station which I do really appreciate and value — is opening the photos Ukrainian women send to me of their grocery carts full of colourful food and even some treats. This makes it all worth it. When I get frustrated, I look through the photos, a physical reminder of what WE together are doing. We are all making a difference.
It may not be €40 million Nachbar in Not (I cannot see those signs anymore meanwhile knowing how many Ukrainians in Austria haven’t received a cent yet), but if each day we distribute at least 40 grocery card vouchers of €50 each, that does make a difference to those 40 families. I am seeing the end of the tunnel, bu I still haven’t opened all my messages. Once I do that, I can start to promote this offer in other social media groups.
Until now, I have relied on one Facebook group for mothers and word of mouth, fellow volunteers, etc. Ultimately, though, we are holding a bucket under a rainy roof. The bucket is a temporary band-aid. The roof needs fixing. That is what the state must do. It has the deep pockets, the people, and the data. It can fix this with a single direct payment to all Ukrainians in Austria who asked for financial aid via their newly opened Austrian bank accounts. None of this is rocket science.
A special thanks to a group of very generous donors in my home state of Arizona, a million miles away from Ukraine and Austria, who put together a substantial donation which will buy many dozens of grocery gift cards. Thank you. I continue to emphasise none of this would be possible without the generosity of individual donors, both in Austria and abroad. Thank you.
I wrote this tweet this morning. I have many such messages, I don’t know why this one resonated more than others. This situation is repeating itself across Austria, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. No one knows why some families were paid and others who arrived in early March still haven't received anything. By this evening, I had a message from the charity asking for the woman’s details. Good, but a drop in our proverbial bucket, because she is not alone. In fact, in Upper Austria, most people have not been paid yet, per local people I am in touch with. I also heard a little known fact (apparently it is a fact) that from month two in Austria, Ukrainians will have to register at AMS (job board) as openly “job seeking” in order to receive their benefits. I have not yet had time to dig into the details…but what will happen to elderly people, moms of babies, moms who didn’t find kindergarten spots yet near their new residences, etc etc etc. Sounds like the next ticking time bomb. And after the millions of Euros the state blew on covid testing (world leader Austria), I wonder why it is still so hard to allocate money to help the tens of thousands of Ukrainians now living in Austria, the majority of which have asked for social payments. In summary — great that this mom will hopefully be paid soon, bad that I had to write on Twitter to make it happen and what about all the others?!
It was only this evening I realised why I had been asked for the family’s info — because journalists had been poking around. But they did not contact me for the article. Kind of weird, no?
I was on Austrian TV today. I cannot stand cameras, so I haven’t watched it yet, but my family tells me it wasn’t terrible (my German is totally grammatically incorrect I never went to any classes):
Other must reads / watches today:
Vienna must end its long waltz with Putin
There is also a long NYT magazine cover story on the surrogate mothers of Ukraine. Again, if a reader would like to kindly send me a paywall-free version, I would be very grateful.
The photos keep rolling in. The women usually write me in the evenings. I now get messages like “I met two moms on the playground can they also write you for a Hofer card?”. 15 more envelopes in the post tonight; 7 cards in my bag to be delivered tomorrow in person. Thank you. Danke. Baby steps we are providing real help and speaking loudly about the major holes and ongoing execution issues (is that diplomatic enough? lol) in the official response.
Thank you for reading. Will try to make more time to write this weekend.
Great interview, Tanja-- I could not understand much, but your dedication and compassion came through loud and clear. Keep up the media! Hopefully the minister (?) political person you met with will endeavor to take a stand and do something. The Bloomberg opinion piece was telling. Thanks kindly for passing it along.