New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Stefanowski travels to Poland to help Ukrainian refugees
Bob Stefanowksi, Republican candidate for governor, traveled to Poland last week to help set up a school for refugee children and bring supplies to Ukranians crossing the Polish border.
Poland has taken in the largest number of refugees – more than 2.1 million – since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24. Several weeks ago, as the war intensified, Stefanowski received a call from a former colleague who asked for his help raising money to start a school for refugee children in the city of Gdansk on the Baltic coast of northern Poland.
Stefanowksi, the grandson of Polish immigrants, said he stepped away from the campaign trail last week to visit the school as it was opening. Already, 50 children, mainly middle-school aged, are attending, and at least another 100 are on the waiting list, he said.
“I know everyone thinks this is political. I get it. I didn’t say anything while I was there because I didn’t want to sensationalize it,” Stefanowski said in a phone interview Friday. “We’re trying to raise money for the school.”
Stefanowski said the school can’t accept more kids until it hires more teachers because the goal is to limit class sizes to one teacher per 10 students. The building formerly housed an art school. There’s no curriculum yet. Right now, the point is to let the children socialize together. They’ve also spent time drawing and dancing, Stefanowski said.
The children’s parents have also been able to connect as they figure out how to start anew including finding housing and employment.
“Some of the people are trying to stay in Gdansk because they’re hopeful that they’ll be able to go home,” Stefanowski said. “Other people are saying, ‘We’ve had it. We’ve been under the threat of Russia forever. This has happened before. We hate to leave the Ukraine but enough is enough we’re just going to relocate our family permanently.’”
Stefanowski also spent several days at the border town of Dorohusk. He said what he observed there — families packed into cars with their belongings, an elderly man who’d traveled with his homemade wine, mothers traveling alone with their children — didn’t compare to what he’d seen on the television news.
“People are making the best out of what they have,” he said. “They’re trying to stay positive”
In a staging area near Dorohusk, officials have converted an old palace into dormitories where refugees come to take a shower, get a hot meal and go through a health screening. They can only stay for one night due to limited capacity. Outside the palace are rows of tents where they can pick up supplies such as jackets, blankets, diapers, and children’s toys.
“They’re basically handed a garbage bag and walk from station to station taking what they need,” Stefanowski said.
He said he’s thought about the trip every day since.
“When you see a family in a car that a week ago had a beautiful house and a neighborhood and now everything they have is in a car. I’ll tell you, it puts things in perspective,” he said.