Local man helps refugee efforts at Poland-Ukraine border

Dallin Durtschi volunteering at the border point in Medyka. | Courtesy Dallin Durtschi
IDAHO FALLS — A local 24-year-old recently returned from the Poland-Ukraine border after helping refugees escape from the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February, unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases and sending in troops and tanks from three sides in an attack that has been widely condemned by countries around the globe. Millions of refugees have fled Ukraine.
“Certainly a chaotic atmosphere,” said Dallin Durtschi.
Durtschi was born and raised in Idaho Falls. He is currently attending graduate school in New York.
He served a church mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Ukraine between 2016 and 2018 and after seeing the news, he knew he could not sit back and watch. He had to do something to help.

Dallin Durtschi serving as an LDS missionary in Ukraine from 2016-2018. | Courtesy Dallin Durtschi
“I was looking for opportunities to go and assist there and I went with an organization called, ‘World Central Kitchen.’ They are an organization that their primary goal is to provide food and necessities to people in natural disasters, catastrophes, and wars,” he said.
Click here to learn more about World Central Kitchen.
Durtschi traveled to Kraków, Poland for an eight-day trip from March 15 to March 22 to help refugees at the Poland-Ukraine border. When he got to Poland, he took a train and said it was extremely chaotic.
“At the Kraków train station the day I got there (in Poland), almost every single train was delayed by five or six hours. There were massive lines of people waiting for information. Everyone was confused. There were lots of refugees there,” explained Durtschi.
Once he was able to find the organization that he was volunteering with, he went straight to work to help refugees. He talked with hundreds of them and learned about their stories and how they felt.
“I speak Russian and have some familiarity with Ukrainian so I can communicate with the people that are fleeing. I arrived and primarily our goal (at World Central Kitchen) was to distribute between 10,000 to 15,000 meals a day with around 30 to 50 volunteers only,” he said. “So that was a lot of prep work needed, a lot of food that needed to be processed and so in the mornings, I would chop vegetables and prepare food that the chefs would then cook and at that point, I would go and take that food to the border and distribute it to refugees as they crossed into Poland from Ukraine.”
He explained to EastIdahoNews.com it was intense to be there in person. There was a great sense of urgency as people crossed the border.
“Men of conscripted age are not allowed to leave Ukraine, so almost everyone who is leaving is either a woman with children or an elderly person and that means that nearly everyone who has crossed the border, has just said goodbye to their husband, their father, their son and so to see these people coming across—yet come across with a lot of resolve and determination, is quite inspiring yet incredibly heartbreaking,” he said.
According to CNN, most Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 are banned from leaving the country in anticipation that they may be called to fight.
Durtschi said at no point did he ever feel unsafe but rather he felt worried for the people who were fleeing after escaping a war zone.
“They enter a whole unknown. They don’t know where they are going to sleep, they don’t know where they are going to get a job, they don’t know how they are going to provide for their children and that fills me with a lot of anxiety because now there are millions of people that have an incredibly uncertain future,” he said.
RELATED: BYU-Idaho students from Ukraine, Russia worried for their families and the future
Durtschi has since returned from his trip and hopes that he can continue to help and make an impact in some way. He hopes others can help too.
“When we are in southeast Idaho, it can kind of feel like we are far away from the world but I think that what is important to remember (is that we) can have a great impact on others whether it’s through our words that we share online or whether it’s through simple acts of kindness with service,” he said.

A refugee housing area that sleeps about 7,000 people. Located across the border in the small Polish city, Przemyśl. | Courtesy Dallin Durtschi

Ukrainian refugees having just crossed the border walking into Poland. | Courtesy Dallin Durtschi

The border control point in Medyka, Poland going into Ukraine. | Courtesy Dallin Durtschi

The World Central Kitchen warehouse that has been converted into a full kitchen preparing and serving thousands of meals per day. | Courtesy Dallin Durtschi

Dallin Durtschi volunteering with World Central Kitchen. | Courtesy Dallin Durtschi
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Source: eastidahonews.com