Sarah, Duchess of York, is the first member of the British Royal Family to travel to Poland to meet with Ukrainian refugees. The duchess travelled to Warsaw where she was welcomed by Mayor Rafał Kazimierz Trzaskowski, who she was ‘honoured’ to meet, to find out ‘what more we can do’ during the humanitarian crisis.
The duchess shared a touching Instagram post of her and Olga, a Ukrainian woman who has recently fled the city of Dnipro with her two young children, leaving her husband to fight for his country against Russian aggression. The duchess wrote a moving caption commemorating Olga’s bravery alongside the photograph, which read: ‘The invasion of Ukraine is heartbreaking to watch. It is unbearable to see families being separated and civilians being caught up in the bloodshed. I have always believed the smile of a child is the most important thing in the world, so to see so many children caught up in this crisis is particularly affecting’.
In later social media posts, the duchess relayed information given to her by the mayor, ‘9,000 children have arrived in Warsaw’s schools over the last ten days and there is a real shortage of teachers’. She also added that she had ‘promised’ to pass on Olga’s message to the world, ‘NO MORE WAR’ and noted that she was ‘humbled’ by the ‘courage and humility’ of Ukrainian citizens.
Sarah, who divorced the Duke of York in 1996, is well known for her philanthropic efforts and charitable contributions. During the summer of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was continuing to disrupt the lives of so many around the globe, the duchess launched her own foundation named Sarah’s Trust. The charity provided aid for the NHS, care homes and hospices by delivering more than 150,000 items, including food, masks, scrubs, and toiletries to their workers and residents. Now the charity is working to help suffering Ukrainians by sending out three articulated lorries with supplies to Poland.
Sarah is amongst other notable people who have journeyed to Poland to offer their immediate support in the wake of the crisis. Heinrich Donatus, Hereditary Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, has been volunteering with Interhelp to give medical aid to refugees arriving in the country. He wrote about his experiences for Tatler earlier this month and described the circumstances of ‘thousands of disoriented and frantically shuffling refugees’ who were demonstrating what he describes as ‘flight mode’.
Prince Charles’s goddaughter India Hicks, whose website describes her as ‘Designer, entrepreneur, humanitarian and mother of five’, also travelled to Eastern Europe to work with Global Empowerment Mission, a nonprofit organisation ‘creating innovative, complex programs for global disasters’.
