ON THE COVER

continued from page 15

16 | MAY 5 • 2022 

I was also busy assisting a Holocaust survivor in 
getting to the dining hall for breakfast, lunch and 
dinner, checking on families quarantined in their 
rooms due to COVID, and many other “small” 
things that were needed. Listening when there was 
a need to hear, hugging when a hug was needed, 
crying with those who cried and just being there 
for others. 
Our volunteers helped with anything they could 
to assist JAFI staff and refugees: helping on the bor-
der, helping in the hotel, working with kids, staffing 
the medical room and Humanitarian Aid store, 
purchasing the supplies, accompanying refugees to 
medical clinics and their pets to the vet appoint-
ments, ensuring those with medical needs unable 
to be in the dining hall received food, organizing a 
trip to a concert and a tour to the Museum of the 
History of Polish Jews, taking a group of kids and 
parents to a park, and so much more.

REFUGEE STORIES
All my mental and emotional preparation still did 
not prepare me for the raw wave of emotion I was 
hit with as refugees, mostly women with children 
and older adults, shared their stories. Some of the 
stories hit me in the gut, got hooked in my heart 
— and it was at that point I probably realized that 
I was not there just to help. We were also there to 
witness. And to bring some of these stories back, so 
everyone who reads it would feel that this pain and 
suffering is happening in the 21st century to people 
just like us. 
There are people just like us who are suffering 
from families being separated, killed and los-
ing everything they’ve worked for their entire 
lives, whether they are fleeing Ukraine, Syria or 
Afghanistan, or other war zones. Here are some of 
the stories that stayed with me:
• A young woman with a 3-month-old baby and 
a 7-year-old daughter from Mariupol, accompanied 
by her husband’s grandmother. Her 32-year-old 
husband was killed when he left the basement of 
their house to get water for an elderly neighbor. 
The 7-year-old doesn’t know her daddy is dead and 
is waiting for him, drawing pictures for him in a 
kids’ group run by a volunteer. His grandmother 
came to the Humanitarian Aid store and cried on 
my shoulder, saying that she couldn’t cry in front of 
her grandson’s wife. Grandma raised her grandson 
and was repeating, “I don’t want to live. Let them 
take me instead of him.” 
• An 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, who evac-
uated from Odessa in 1941 when she was 5 years 
old, and now again, in a wheelchair, needing assis-
tance to get out of the room during mealtimes and 

“LISTENING WHEN THERE WAS A 
NEED TO HEAR, HUGGING WHEN A 
HUG WAS NEEDED, CRYING WITH 
THOSE WHO CRIED AND JUST 

BEING THERE FOR OTHERS.”

— JFS’ YULIA GAYDAYENKO

Yuliya (center) with 
fellow volunteers