‘I’m travelling 900 miles to Poland to give £5k of laptops to Ukraine refugees’

A dad-of-two is taking over £3,000 worth of laptops and screens to refugee receiving centres in Poland which are currently receiving over 15,000 Ukrainian refugees a day. Ex-special forces worker Charlie Jamieson, 42, from Chiswick, West London, is raising money for three centres in Przemusl, southern Poland.

Charlie is the Chief Technology Officer for Mitmark, a security consultant firm made up of people who previously worked in the Special Forces. He said: “We often do investigations for countries and that kind of thing on a commercial basis. And then humanitarian stuff, wherever we can go and help, we do.”

He continued: “So when Covid hit, we deployed a load of thermal imaging cameras to the NHS to help out with fever screening. As we’ve got those types of employees on staff, we understand how to go to a different country and set up a communications network, that kind of thing.”

Within two weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, over two million Ukrainians had fled the country. This is the biggest refugee crisis in Europe that we have seen for decades, Al Jazeera reports.

READ MORE: London dad driving truck full of donations 1,300 miles to Ukraine wants to make sure supplies ‘go to the right people’

Charlie explained that currently, 15,000-20,000 refugees are arriving from Ukraine every single day at the Polish centres. “You’ve basically got a few guys, with a few laptops, and then loads of queues,” he said. “They come in, they get received, and they don’t really know what to do after that.”

“Imagine if you went to Heathrow,” he added, “and all the screens were broken – people would be running around like headless chickens. So that’s what we’re doing to speed up the whole process, because then you get more people through the door, and most importantly, out of the door.”

Charlie’s original plan was to load up a van with screens in the UK, and make the three-and-a-half-day car journey to Poland to install them there. But now, as soon as he has raised enough money, he plans to fly to Germany and hire a van there, buy the screens in Poland and then set them up.

Currently, Charlie’s fundraiser has raised £6,392 – so he is embarking on his journey to Poland as soon as possible. But if funds continue to come in, he will set up communications and networking in receiving centres in Moldova, Slovakia, and Romania.

You can donate to his fundraiser here .

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