A couple has rented out an entire hotel to help provide shelter for hundreds of Ukrainian refugees.
Jakub and Gosia Golata from the UK partnered up with the Sue Ryder charity to rent out an entire Polish hotel that was closed amid the pandemic.
Bringing a total of 180 rooms at abandoned Park Hotel Tryszczyn to good purpose, the couple talked to the owners of the hotel and funded the reopening and operational expenses of the hotel together with Golata’s bosses at Skanska, a world-leading construction company, who helped finance the charity project.
“I came up with this idea that if I would be able to rent an entire hotel and place these vulnerable mothers and children in a hotel, and then allow them to settle, feel safe, looked after and be able to come to terms what’s happening, then that that would be the best thing,” Mr. Golata said.
“And that would also allow me to find the local community volunteers so they can be taken care of a bit more.”
The couple, who migrated to the UK in 2004, came up with the idea to rent an entire hotel after seeing the desperation of millions of refugees who lost their homes during the war in Ukraine.
While Golata previously volunteered by picking up refugees at the Polish border and helping them find temporary homes with host families, he felt he needed to do more for the people in need.
“I thought ‘I need to engage and I need to help as much as I can’, but I wasn’t really sure how I could help. So firstly I thought ‘I need to see it with my own eyes’ to see how can I help with my knowledge, skills and experience,” Golata says.
After making a deal with Park Hotel Tryszczyn in Poland and raising enough funds to reopen it, Golata personally drove a large bus to the border with Ukraine to pick up the first batch of refugees.
So far, more than 150 people have already been provided with shelter at the rented hotel.
“This refugee hub basically provides the refugees safety and security that should the Polish family not be right for them or vice versa, they’ve got the refugee hub to go back to,” Golata added.
“It’s a risk reduction and also a support for both, so much as we are worrying about the refugees we are also worrying about the adopting families, because they also need support.”
While they have already done more than expected for the people of Ukraine, the Golatas aren’t stopping yet. They now hope the government will step in and implement a similar model across the country to provide refuge to the most vulnerable of Ukrainians.
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