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

Milly Luxford, a 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 confronted the harsh and horrific realities of war.

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

“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 border 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 happening to Ukraine and its citizens, she was eager to help but was unsure what was the best way to help.

“A friend of mine was out there, she was a military wife, and she saw what was going on. She 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.”

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

The refugee centre is rented by a wealthy businessman and based in an old Tesco Extra and 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 NGOs. No major organisations are taking this on because the Polish authorities won't admit there is a crisis. Until they admit there is a crisis, the UN won't come in, the Red Cross won't come in, no one will come in to help.”

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

Mrs Luxford recommended the three donation pages below to make an instant and vital impact on the lives of Ukrainian refugees.

https://www.madfoundation.com

MAD Foundation

Fundraiser by Sarah Fraser: Targeted aid to the Ukrainian border

Provides targeted aid to the Ukrainian border. @help_ukrainian_refugees

www.gofundme.com

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

www.justgiving.com

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 won't consider it a crisis, they're not there.”

(originally published 20/04/2022)