V2 presenter volunteers for Ukrainian refugee camp - “babies were turning black, they were just frostbite, It was just hugely inhumane”

Milly Luxford travelled to Poland to help at a refugee centre on the border of Ukraine
The Humanitarian Aid Centre in PrzemyslThe Humanitarian Aid Centre in Przemysl
The Humanitarian Aid Centre in Przemysl

Milly Luxford, broadcast presenter at V2 radio travelled to Poland to help Ukrainians flee their war-torn country,

Working at a refugee centre in Przemysl, Mrs Luxford was confronted with the harsh and horrific realities of war.

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“My husband is in the army, so whenever I think of war I think of the blokes on the ground and you just never think of the fallout of the families of the people. Everyday was is another horror story. And I was just blessed that my experiences of it were really second hand, it was just people talking to me and telling me about it.

The Humanitarian Aid Centre in PrzemyslThe Humanitarian Aid Centre in Przemysl
The Humanitarian Aid Centre in Przemysl

“I was chatting to these people who were working at the food kitchen that had been put up and they were running about giving them tea and coffee and trying to get them [the refugees] as warm as possible because there were some deaths on the boarder of people just freezing.

“There was one chap I was talking to and he said that babies were turning black, they were just frostbite. It was just hugely inhumane”

The West Sussex radio presenter explained that seeing the atrocities that were happening to Ukraine and its citizens she was eager to help out but was not sure what was the best way to help.

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“A friend of mine was out there, she was a military wife, she saw what was going on. She decided to decided to drive to the other side of the country and help out. I saw what she was doing, and I think so many of us would like to do something but don’t know what to do, so I got in touch with her.”

The Humanitarian Aid Centre in PrzemyslThe Humanitarian Aid Centre in Przemysl
The Humanitarian Aid Centre in Przemysl

Miss Luxford flew from Bristol to Rzeszów on the Poland Ukraine border. There she and her friend worked at The Humanitarian Aid Centre in Przemysl, a refugee centre.

The refugee centre was based in an old Tesco Extra which had been rented by a wealthy business man and is filled with volunteers from all over the globe, the vast majority of whom have no previous experience working at refugee centres.

“The one thing that shocked me the most was the fact that there were just no NGO’s, there’s no major organisations that are taking this on because the Polish authorities wont admit there is a crisis, Until they admit there is a crisis the UN wont come in, the Red Cross wont come in, no one will come in to help.”

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She said ‘it literally is just being left with volunteers’ and that ‘throwing all your money at the big organisiations’ will not help people at the minute as ‘they are not having and impact at the minute. Its not making a difference’.

The Humanitarian Aid Centre in PrzemyslThe Humanitarian Aid Centre in Przemysl
The Humanitarian Aid Centre in Przemysl

Mrs Luxford recomended the three donation pages below as good pages to make an instant and vital impact to the lives of Ukrainian refugees.

MAD Foundation

Move vulnerable groups and individuals from the Border and Refugee Centres to their family and existing friends throughout Poland and Europe. Assist with our Lviv colleagues in crossing the border with donated aid supplies and bringing back refugees who have no transport, in particular from rural areas south of Lviv, to and across the Poland border and into safety.

Milly Luxford UkraineMilly Luxford Ukraine
Milly Luxford Ukraine

Fundraiser by Sarah Fraser : Targeted aid to the Ukrainian border

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Provides targetted aid to the Ukrainian border.“Just so frustrating that the UK visa system is so protracted: Firstly, in order to apply for a visa you need a UK sponsor, and whilst there are thousands of you out there willing to host, there is no unified and regulated platform for this to be achieved. Insta: @help_ukrainian_refugees ww.gofundme.com

Crowdfunding to help buy supplies at the Polish-Ukrainian border. on JustGiving

thank you all so much. thus far today i’ve bought £280 worth of water, juice, and snacks for the railway station, coffees for refugees I met throughout the day, a ticket on a coach to Krakow for one babusja when the train she had wanted to get was full and she couldn’t be guaranteed a seat, and coach tickets to Italy for a mum and daughter. free tickets are provided to Ukrainian citizens, but ...

Mrs Luxford said: “Desperately for me i just want to get across that people [think they are helping by] giving to like the Red Cross and they’re not, because Poland wont considered it crisis, theyrre not there”

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