An Interview with Sylwia Jankowska

Jesuit Refugee Service [JRS] forms part of “In Action” Jesuit Social Center [Polish: “W Akcji” Jezuickie Centrum Społeczne, http://www.wakcji.org/en/.] It is located in a large complex belonging to the Catholic Society of Jesus [Jesuits] and centered upon Warsaw’s St. Andrzej Boboli Church. Founded a decade ago and staffed by approximately 20 volunteers, JRS in Poland is an open resource for refugees requiring assistance with accommodations, material goods, employment, and/or legal status. 

Soon to lead JRS’ day-to-day operations, Sylwia Jankowska has worked with the organization for three years. In late August, the editor of the East-West Church Report met her in Warsaw to discover more about JRS’ assistance to those fleeing the ongoing war in Ukraine. The conversation took place in English. 

 How did you come to be involved in this work? 

I was raised Catholic and involved in church activities in my home city, Toruń—that is where [pioneering astronomer] Nicolaus Copernicus was born. I lived in London for five years, where I was also active in a Polish church. I first had contact with refugees coming into the UK in 2014-15. I became interested in that subject, and when I returned to Poland, I decided to volunteer in this organization. I sensed that we were also having these problems in Poland, and that we similarly did not have a good idea of what to do. Once back in Poland, I decided to do my postgraduate degree in Migration Studies. 

What did you experience here once Ukrainians began to flee Russian shelling this past February-March? 

There was a huge rush to help, a wave of action. The scale of need was far greater than usual. Typically, we assist around three or four people a day. While I cannot provide a number for that period, our volunteers here were working all the time; it was very intense. We had to put aside all our usual work, as well as the refugees who had been our regular visitors, in order to focus solely upon the Ukraine crisis. We volunteered at the border, providing meals, directions, and information about what was available in Poland. An independent group of local Catholic volunteers also worked with us to try and find accommodations for those coming from Ukraine. We created a list of people nearby who could offer housing. When the war started, everyone wanted to help the refugees from Ukraine as much as they could, and Poles were opening up their houses to them. Many are still staying with these families. The Jesuits here found they had some spare rooms, so they decided to open them up to a number of families—around 20 adults and children in total—and they are still hosting them. These families are becoming independent, but very slowly, because this takes time. But there is no hurry to change this situation— it is good that they are here and safe. 

What other types of assistance have you offered? 

City councils and NGOs—including ours—found places to organize Polish language courses. Some require a fee, but ours—available since March—is free of charge. There are already some people who can speak Polish, but they have had contact with the language on a daily basis. 

We have also offered computer courses, as well as services like document translation. We have different locations besides Warsaw: in Gdynia, Nowy Sącz, and Poznań. In Gdynia [on the Baltic coast] we have a Jesuit education center that includes a kindergarten for Ukrainian children. Nowy Sącz [in the far south] works pretty much like here—a refugee point to help with whatever the refugees need. When they come they already have an idea of what they want from us. In Poznań [west-central Poland] we are more specifically focused on psychological help.

In Ukraine there is another Jesuit center in Kyiv where we have sent funds and material goods. We also have close ties to a Catholic church in Lutsk [approximately 50 miles from the Polish border], whose priest has twice come here to pick up some goods we collected together with the National Museum. He is running a center for refugees who need to stop in Lutsk for a couple of days on their way to Poland or some other destination. 

Have you also offered psychological support here in Warsaw? 

When the conflict started we had professional volunteers holding a special license in psychological trauma. We also organized a short workshop for volunteers on how to handle people with trauma: how they will behave, how to help them, how to talk to them; just an overview of what is going to happen over a couple of weeks or months of working with them. There was no direct counselling—initially, everyone was just focusing on getting to the point of being safe. I do not know if anyone requested counselling. My impression is that people try not to show the trauma they have experienced. They believe they can handle it all by themselves. With a person’s permission, we would intervene if we noticed something was wrong—we would always try to find someone able to help. 

We are now trying to do something like this for young adults. We realized that the adults are being taken care of because they have to work and learn Polish in order to be able to get by in Poland. Kids are easily accommodated— there are kindergartens and many activities for those under 12. But when it comes to teenagers, there is a gap. In all the chaos, not many activities were organized for them, and they are also in that period of life when they do not want to be treated like kids anymore. They are facing huge trauma right now. We noticed that those older kids who are living here are just glued to their phones—to the news, to their friends who are far away—and it is very hard to get them to do anything. This summer we organized language courses for teenagers. Ukraiński Dom [Polish: Ukrainian House]—an NGO in Poland run by Ukrainians—has also noticed this issue, and we are planning to do something more in collaboration with them. 

What has been the reception of Ukrainian refugees by the Polish public? 

When the war started, there was a massive natural movement to help refugees from Ukraine. It was beautiful to see how many Poles were involved in helping Ukrainians to escape their country and to host them here. There was so much enthusiasm towards them, so much willingness to help neighbors faced with a common aggressor—but we knew that this enthusiasm would fall very quickly. It would last for a few months, but at some point all the volunteers would get tired. We would then see the cultural differences and hear complaints about how there is no space in schools for our children, while there is space for Ukrainians, for example; that the government supports Ukrainians financially, but does not take care of our Polish communities.

 I think we are beginning to see this now: Many who have volunteered are tired and have given up. Over the summer we had many Ukrainians asking us for accommodations because their regular Polish hosts wanted them to move out. Some warned them beforehand that they could stay for only a short time, but some had promised longterm accommodations and changed their minds. We are therefore afraid that we are about to face a housing crisis. We are already, actually, but the problem of homelessness looks set to become huge very soon. 

Many people who are moving to Poland also think they will find refuge in big cities like Warsaw, but Warsaw is so overloaded already, in fact, that we are trying to encourage people to move out of the capital to smaller towns, where there are currently more opportunities for employment and accommodation. 

In your experience, how many of those fleeing the war in Ukraine have some form of Christian faith?

 We do not really ask about that, as we do not want to interfere. If people are interested, we can share information about local churches. But there was a huge community of Ukrainians here even before the war, so they are pretty well informed in that area. 

So you do not promote any religious doctrine? 

We are open to every culture. We do not put a label on people or segregate them due to their religion or background; we treat everyone equally. Before the Ukraine crisis we received refugees from many different destinations: Afghanistan, Iraq, Rwanda, North Africa, as well as former Soviet states like Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Some people who were refugees in the early days of our organization have since become volunteers. We have an amazing man from Ethiopia, for example, who now speaks Polish fluently and is helping other refugees. 

We are called Jesuit Refugee Service, so people do know to whom they are coming to ask for help. If they want to talk about faith, we are open for conversation. However, our group of volunteers does not talk about faith in a direct way: “Who do you believe in?” We invite people to attend our Masses and other events dedicated to the faith that we practice, but then it is up to them if they join in or not. So there is always a free choice for people. If it is Christmas or Easter, we organize events here and invite people of other religions to come and enjoy this time with us. It is good to see them participating in our culture and our religion, celebrating our holy days with us, but it is not necessary for them to go to church with us. We are together because we are a family, and we want to celebrate good things together. 

There are some people who feel like they need to have more of the spiritual aspect of religion and of being in a community, but we do not want to close ourselves off from atheists or other religions. We just want to work with people, and whatever way they feel like being part of this is fine with us.

Is there something distinctively Jesuit about this approach?

I think so. Poland is known as a very Catholic country, and we tend to generalize that it is the right wing that is more Catholic and conservative, homogenous and unfriendly towards outsiders, while the left is endlessly liberal. But actually, working here feels pretty much in the middle, because this place is both Catholic and open-minded. We know that there is no point in dividing people, because we are all human beings and we should love each other as the Bible says. We should help each other despite where we come from, or whatever our background. The Jesuits have this openness towards everyone—an open heart and willingness to help people irrespectively.