THERE has been an overwhelming outpouring of support for the people of Ukraine from the people of Fermanagh this week.
As the horror of the Russian invasion continues to unfold, with the war now raging for seven days, here at home people from across the county have been coming together to do anything they can to help.
Such has been the scale of the response, those collecting essential items for families fleeing the conflict have been struggling to cope with the level of local generosity.
Monika Pochylska has been helping co-ordinate one of the collections, which was started by the owner of the Polski Sklep Basia shop in Enniskillen. Since they announced the collection at the weekend, they have been inundated with support, so much so the shop actually ran out of room to store the items.
With fellow local business Osborne and Co stepping in to help by offering storage space and acting as a second collection point, instead of sending one van via the Polish school in Cavan on Friday, it now looks like lorries will be needed.
“We are getting so much help, we are totally overwhelmed. People are so generous,” said Ms Pochylska.
“We were never expecting it, with the pandemic and people losing their jobs.
“People just want to help so much, and we are really grateful.”
Explaining how the collection had been set up by a group of local Polish people wanting to help the phenomenal aid effort back home, Ms Pochylska said 90 per cent of items were actually coming from Irish people, with “everyone trying to help as much as they can.”
To read more on this story see this week’s Fermanagh Herald. Can’t get to the shop to collect your copy? No problem! You can download a copy straight to your device by following this link https://bit.ly/3gOl8G0
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