Local woman Sally Edwards was fed up watching the atrocities in Ukraine on TV each night and feeling powerless to do anything.
“I cannot believe that the world is standing by and watching these war criminals and doing nothing,“ she said.
Wanting to do something practical she contacted an old work colleague, Inessam who she knew was originally from Ukraine.
“When I rang, she was at the point of despair,” Sally said.
“Her mother, sister, niece and two great-nephews had finally taken the decision to leave their village in the east and flee to Poland.
“Her 83-year-old mother, who is a double amputee, had begged the family to leave her behind to die in the village because she didn’t want to slow them down.
“I couldn’t imagine that pain,” said Sally.
“I felt moved to do something.”
The family of five, two of whom are widows, travelled by packed train to Leviev and then on to a transit camp in Poland.
They have only the clothes on their back having left everything behind.
They would like to reunite with their family in Queensland but their journey will stop in Poland as they can’t afford the flights to Australia.
“I knew immediately what I had to do,” Sally said. “I had to get the generous people of Warwick to help me ‘adopt’ this family and raise the funds to get them on a plane.”
Joanne O’Reilly of Warwick Lifestyle Property was also touched by the story.
“I wanted to help Sally raise these funds- we had a mailing going out this weekend, so we quickly changed it to add this appeal to our flyer.”
The whole story of this family and details of how you can help can be found on the webpage: www.warwicklifestyleproperty.com.au/make-a-difference
Joanne has already raised over $5,000 in just a few days.
“I believe the people of Warwick will get behind this because even though we are so far away we can make a difference one family at a time,” she said.
“Sometimes direct action is more effective than giving to international humanitarian agencies who do a good job running the refugee camps but are very bureaucratic”
For more information, you can see the web page or call Sally on 0478 161 817.
