Nashville, Tenn. — “We don’t have refugee camps in Poland,” Szymon Czyszek explains. Instead, Poles have welcomed Ukrainians into their private homes, despite often speaking different languages. Czyszek is in the United States for the Knights of Columbus annual convention, giving testimony to what the Knights have seen and done in Poland and Ukraine to help innocent victims of the Russian war on the Ukrainian people. He remembers a mother who had with her the eight-day-old infant she had just delivered. She walked five days in freezing temperatures during “a time that should be filled with joy and hope, and she had to flee.” He says “these stories never end,” of people surmounting physically and mentally rigorous challenges.
Czyszek is with the Knights of Columbus in Poland. From the beginning of the war until the end of May, the Knights have served more than 300,000 at the Ukrainian border — at least 10 percent of those who have fled.
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