Tayside pair providing aid to refugees at Polish border

Jacob and Brogan made the trip to Poland to help refugees fleeing the conflict in Ukraine

Jacob and Brody
Author: Nicolle CasselsPublished 18th Mar 2022
Last updated 18th Mar 2022

A young pair from Tayside have travelled to Poland in order to support Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion.

Jacob Wright from Arbroath and Brogan Riley from Dundee made the trip over in their van to deliver essentials for refugees.

They've mostly been delivering goods, but Jacob also took a Ukranian woman to a hotel past Krakow in his van.

Kids at Polish border

Both have been helping fleeing Ukrainians with their onward journeys, co-ordinating accommodation and transport using WhatsApp, and helping them finding places to live in the UK.

Poland

Jacob has been telling us what it's like at the border:

"The first thing we've seen was something like 1000 people crossing the border every hour.

"So we got back to the centre, unloaded the goods, I saw the kids and it was too much for me, I broke down."

"We were told about an 80 year old woman who was not allowed to cross the border with her guide dog.

"So the volunteers spent hours and hours and hours convincing them to let her pass."

"This isn't big companies that are out here doing this, it's average people like myself, I work in Dominos, Brogan works in Lidl.

"This is individuals that are out her volunteering with their own money."

Ukrainian refugees are expected to arrive in Scotland as early as this weekend, under the Scottish Government's 'super sponsor' scheme.

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