DALLAS — A Ukrainian woman, a refugee who had just spent 12 hours at the border with Poland as she tried to flee the fighting in her country, wanted to show the American volunteers at a refugee center in Medyka, Poland her own video of her home village being bombed.
"She said I want you to see what they are doing to us. I want the world to see," said Wade Nicolas from Dallas. "That's what she said. Not complaining," he said of the conversation. "They're just mad!"
Nicolas, a semi-retired software executive, boarded a plane at his own expense earlier this week. It took two days to travel to London and then to Warsaw, Poland where he rented a car and drove to Medyka.
He is volunteering with World Central Kitchen, the humanitarian relief organization created by chef Jose Andres. In a warehouse converted into a commercial kitchen, they are cooking mass quantities of venison, chicken, and beef stew, borscht, baby food, and hot chocolate.
As of Friday, the dozens of volunteers were feeding as many as 7,000 refugees a day -- the food distributed to refugee centers throughout Medyka.
"It's really cold here," said Nicolas of the temperatures that only reached 35 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday. "These people are totally exposed on the other side of the border. There's no shelter for them. I heard it was a 12-hour wait at the border. It's pretty difficult. And it's all women and children, no men. An occasional grandma. But it's a mom with a kid on her hip and one by the hand. And they've had a tough four days."
"You've never seen more ambulances in your life running up and down the border," he said. "Because some people come across, by the time they've gotten here, they're in crisis."
Nicolas, who says he canceled a planned vacation to go help with the relief effort instead, had never worked with World Central Kitchen before. He plans to stay a full two weeks and invites others to consider doing the same -- volunteering either with their time or their money to help save families who are in crisis by no fault of their own.
"Regardless what everybody thinks of this conflict, these people who are suffering here today it's not their fault. It's not the second graders fault. It's not his mom's fault," he said. "There's no skin in this game at all except they just want to live in peace. And these are the ones that are paying the price for the global game of chess."
The United Nations' most current estimate is that more than 2.5 million Ukrainians have fled their country to escape the war.
If you would like to find out how you could help World Central Kitchen and other relief efforts you can find a link here.