Retired Chesterfield nurse travels to Poland to support Ukrainians affected by the war with Russia

Shirley Smith, 65, from Holymoorside, spent a week in Lublin, a town in eastern Poland, supporting people affected by the war in Ukraine.

The conflict is now in its sixth month and has had a devastating effect on the population, with hundreds of thousands cut off from essential supplies and experiencing serious shortages.

Shirley swapped the comfort of her UK home for physical work at a warehouse as a part of an international volunteering programme by RE:ACT, an emergency and crisis response charity.

While working together with the Ukrainian refugees, the former nurse and midwife, was unpacking and sorting donated goods before repacking them to be collected and taken to Ukraine.

Shirley said: “The Ukrainian women I have been working with, were absolutely amazing. They had to move out of their homes because of a very nasty, violent and dangerous situation. Many of them did it as they wanted to bring their children to safety.

“Very often their other halves are fighting in the war, risking their life. And rather than just sitting feeling sorry for themselves, these amazing women who have been displaced, have decided to help organise what is needed and make sure the aid is going to their homeland.”

Working with Ukrainians was a bit challenging at the beginning, due to the language barrier, but the warehouse team quickly managed to overcome communication issues.

Shirley said: “You can’t learn another language in a few days, but the smile and willingness to work with people gets you a long way. And having women on our team has helped us to bond with women at the warehouse too.

“We also had a few younger Ukrainian ladies and they were able to speak some English. Thanks to them, the help of Google Translate, and body language we were able to get through the week. And me and my colleagues from RE:ACT have even become firm friends with a lot of Ukrainian women.”

Shirley was impressed and inspired by all the Ukranians at the warehouse, but she specifically remembers one of them, a former dancer who told her co-workers that when the war came, she stopped dancing because she felt like all the ‘air had been sucked out of her’ and she couldn’t perform.

Shirley said: “As she was working with her country women doing what they could to help those back home in the Ukraine, gave her life back, and consequently she had begun dancing again and one day we watched her dancing on top of the empty aid pallets!”

Supporting people affected by the war required not only emotional, but also physical strength as the volunteers were spending about nine hours a day preparing the parcels.

Shirley was not only packing the items but also leading a team whose priority were packages with bedding, as many Ukrainians had been forced to flee their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

After spending the entire day in the warehouse, Shirley was trying to give herself a break while wandering around Lublin alongside other volunteers.

She said: “ The whole of Lublin is just such a fantastic area, a really beautiful place. I felt very safe there and people were so welcoming. We usually sleep on floors while volunteering, but they offered us accommodation in a local hotel, which was amazing. We felt very well looked after.”

The week in Lublin was very demanding, but Shirley who has been supporting others her entire life, enjoyed every second of it and was happy to be able to help.

She said: “It is important to support people when they're having the worst days of their life. It may only be a little bit of help, but even just being there sometimes is enough for people. It reminds them that they're not forgotten and others do care about them.”

Shirley spent the majority of her career caring for patients in the UK but also spent eight years in the Canadian Arctic and Sub Arctic with remote Indian and Inuit Communities working as a nurse practitioner.

After she retired in 2018, she decided to join RE:ACT in 2019 as she wanted to keep helping others.

She said: “After I retired I was looking for something fulfilling to do. In my career I've done a bit of community development work in remote settlements and I just thought I had skills that possibly could be utilised in disaster response work so I joined RE:ACT.

“Working with people from all walks of life has just been phenomenal. Being able to give something back is a real privilege and I am so glad I can do that through RE:ACT. I would certainly recommend the charity to others, and I frequently do! The sense of camaraderie is brilliant and you get a real sense of family and community working with RE:ACT.”

Shirley has now came back home to Holymoorside, but RE:ACT team is continuing its efforts to support people affected by the war.

Currently, they are delivering £30 food boxes to difficult to reach areas in Ukraine. Parcels containing enough food to feed a family of four for a week. To support and promote the local supply chain, all contents of the packs are locally sourced in Eastern Europe. They include items such as pasta, grains, tinned fish, and tea bags.