Would You Like to Meet Us in Poland?

From top: Warsaw; Karol (left) with his colleague Lubna; Muslim Tatar mosque in Northeast Poland; Bialystok’s Market Square; meeting with partners in Northeast Poland; Poland’s famous storks; potato pancake; a synagogue damaged during the Holocaust

For this issue of Humanity News, we’re flipping things around and asking for information from you. Our friend and colleague Karol Wilczyński, a scholar and grassroots activist in Poland, suggested that we bring a group of donors to his country to observe the humanitarian situation for themselves. We imagine that the trip would last about a week or ten days and take place in the spring of 2026. Before we make a final decision to organize it, we’re reaching out to you, our community, to gauge your interest.

Why are we considering this trip? Because for almost ten years we’ve asked for your help in supporting refugees and migrants, first in Greece and later in Poland and Ukraine. In our emails, we do our best to describe the challenges of displacement and explain the extraordinary work of our partners on the ground. Nothing beats seeing the situation in person, though, and hearing directly from these aid workers. Their perseverance and success continually renew our faith in humanity and help us maintain our hope for the future—a precious commodity in these trying times. We believe that meeting them would do the same for you.

We’d also use this educational trip as a fundraiser. We’d ask participants to commit to raising money, either by hosting an event or by making a direct donation to Humanity Now. (How much? That’s still open for discussion!) If you want to host a fundraiser, we’d offer our expertise to make your effort a success. If you want to invite us, we’d even try to come! We hope that a project bringing together a group of caring and curious donors would help us to expand our reach and broaden our ability to help displaced people.

For this trip, Karol’s our expert and we’d work with him to organize it. He’ll also travel with us, serve as our translator, and, most importantly, help us better understand the history and context of the complex issues facing this region.

The journey would start in the medieval city of Krakow, Poland. We’d suggest that you arrive a few days early to get over jet lag and explore the fascinating sites in the area. Then, we’ll come together as a group, meet Karol, and spend some time with Pol Foundation, the organization he founded, which provides language training and social services for newcomers. That night, we could get together for beer and pierogis at a traditional Krakow restaurant.

Next, we’ll travel to Warsaw, where we’ll spend two days meeting with aid teams supporting Ukrainian refugees and other displaced people. We’ll learn about aid efforts, visit with teams providing support to people living in Polish camps, learn about advocacy on behalf of immigrants, and hear about the situation inside Ukraine itself, where Humanity Now partners are providing medical aid, food, and shelter to civilians in the war zone. We’ll also block out time to explore the museums and history of Warsaw. One night, we’ll go to our favorite Georgian restaurant and, on another night, we can journey back to the Cold War Era by having dinner at place called the The Red Hog.

After a few days in Warsaw, we’ll drive to northeast Poland to visit aid teams working in the area known as “the Green Border,” which is adjacent to Belarus. The migrant route that runs through here hasn’t received much attention in the media, but it has triggered acute humanitarian hardship in recent years. (You may remember that back in October we told you about the deeply moving film on this topic, The Green Border, by the brilliant Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland; it’s now streaming on Amazon Prime and we highly recommend it.)

Humanity Now’s partners in this region are mostly tiny aid teams, sometimes just a few individuals who collect coats and diapers and other supplies to offer people on the move. Basing ourselves in the pretty city of Bialystok, we will meet with aid teams and hear about their work and the challenges they face. We’ll walk through the Białowieża Forest, a UNESCO natural heritage site, meet with people from the Muslim Tatar community, visit synagogues damaged during the Holocaust, and make a pilgrimage to a small cemetery holding the remains of people who died trying to reach Poland. From there, we’ll drive back to Warsaw for the journey home.

You may be wondering about the price of such a trip. We don’t have numbers yet, but we do have some basic information. You’d be responsible for your own international flights. Otherwise, most of your meals, as well as accommodation and local transportation, would be included in the cost.

Does this idea appeal to you? If you’re potentially interested and want to learn more, please email us at info@humanity-now.org. Your response will help us assess whether or not to move forward. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.