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April 28, 2022BY BILL DOYLE
CFP CORRESPONDENT
When Wally Connor assisted Ukrainian refugees in Poland for a week recently, the Brookfield resident met people who were relieved to escape the Russian bombs and thankful for the aid they received from strangers.
“They would literally break down emotionally once they were over the border, knowing they were in a safe place,” he said. “They came from basements and shelters where it was cold, where there was little food, where there were injured and expired people on the floor next to them. Just horrific tales of literally running away from shelling and praying that they get to a safe place.”
Mr. Connor is executive director of Supporting Orphans Nationally & Globally (SONG), an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) charitable organization that supports orphaned children around the world and foster children in the U.S., mainly in Massachusetts.
Mr. Connor, 68, represented SONG on the April 5-12 trip with volunteers from organizations and staff members from the Aerial Recovery Group, a team of U.S. military veterans based in Nashville, Tennessee.
“The other part of it that struck me the most,” said the parishioner at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in West Brookfield, “was how appreciative these people were of the work that we were doing.”
When Mr. Connor and his fellow volunteers arrived at refugee camps with much-needed supplies, they were met with hugs and tears of joy.
“They were almost in awe of the stuff that we were doing for them and providing for them,” he said. “They were just so appreciative and so warm and loving in receiving us.”
The more than $40,000 that SONG fundraised was used to procure food, fuel and vehicle parts for rescue teams at the border and to purchase groceries, personal hygiene items and blankets for Ukrainian refugees who were evacuated to camps in Poland.
About 50 children at one refugee camp had nothing to play with outside. So with donations made to SONG, Mr. Connor purchased a trampoline, a swing set and a sandbox and he and his fellow volunteers set them up.
“We couldn’t set up the trampoline and swing set fast enough,” he said.
Some of the volunteers played soccer with the children.
The first camp he visited was a 300,000-square foot warehouse at the border. At the height of the exodus, 10,000 people came through per day. Agencies from all over the world volunteered there. There was a fully staffed medical unit 24-7. Food agencies from around the world prepared meals for the refugees. There were indoor activities for children. The Polish military and police provided security.
When Mr. Connor visited, about 400 refugees stayed there. Busloads of refugees arrived about every half hour.
“Most of the people staying in that refugee camp,” he said, “were hoping the war would end soon because they would just as soon go home rather than move to another place in Europe or somewhere else.”
That camp was well stocked, but the smaller refugee camps he visited weren’t.
Mr. Connor’s role was to purchase supplies for the rescue teams and refugee camps and to transport older refugees to clinics for medication.
“Of course, being a refugee and being in a foreign country,” he said, “it was a little difficult to maneuver the system to get them the help they needed. But we came together and we made it happen, we made it work.”
Mr. Connor speaks a little Russian, but not Ukrainian or Polish. His support team, however, had a translator, a woman who had moved from the Ukraine to the U.S. when she was 10 and who spoke Ukrainian, Polish and English.
Another member of Mr. Connor’s support team was a hairstylist, who cut the hair of the refugees.
A physician assistant from Hawaii took care of the medical needs of the children that hadn’t been addressed in a while.
One of the women on Mr. Connor’s team brought beads and made bead bracelets for the children.
A media person took photos and videos to document everything.
“The kids are all over you,” Mr. Connor said. “They want to talk to you, have their pictures taken with you.”
Some older refugees were too upset to have their photos taken, however.
On his first full day in Poland, Mr. Connor worked from 8 a.m. until 1:30 a.m. Later in the week, he spent an entire day in bed with the flu. Fortunately, he tested negative for COVID. The next day he felt a bit better so he drove supply runs. He relapsed on his way home, however, and went to the emergency room at UMass Memorial Health - Harrington in Southbridge. He tested negative again for COVID, but two strains of influenza A were found. It took him awhile, but he finally began to feel better.
Mr. Connor had expected to assist in the safe evacuation of Ukrainian orphans, but the mission changed. Poland had accepted so many refugees by the time he arrived, the decision was made to transfer orphans from the dangerous areas of Ukraine to temporary safe havens in western Ukraine. Mr. Connor said not crossing the border also limited the risk of traffickers kidnapping orphans or unaccompanied children.
During the week Mr. Connor was in Poland, the rescue teams moved more than 160 orphans to safe havens in western Ukraine and evacuated 50-75 refugees, mostly children with parents or grandparents, across the border into Poland.
Mr. Connor said the refugees had no idea why Russia was bombing their homeland.“Some didn’t understand why it was happening,” he said. “Some were just outright calling Russia fascists and they hated them, but most people really didn’t want to talk about it. They did talk about the horror of running from shelling and how brutal it was in the basements and shelters waiting for someone to rescue them.”
Mr. Connor said he and his team were never in any danger while in Poland.
“The rescue teams on the other hand,” he said, “they went to very dangerous areas. Fortunately for them, they received good intelligence from the government and they would calculate the risks on the routes they would take to rescue people.”
Mr. Connor said SONG will pay for the utilities for the next three months for a refugee house in a building that a local Polish woman offered rent free. The house had 85 refugees when he was there and was expecting another 40 or so. For security reasons, Mr. Connor isn’t allowed to name the town where the camp is located, only that it’s in southern Poland. It’s nicknamed “South Side,” because it’s located on the south side of the village.
SONG also provided the house a stipend for a month’s worth of groceries.
Mr. Connor plans to remain in touch with the South Side refugee house and to return to the Poland-Ukraine border within a month or so.
