Reconnaissance: Warsaw
Warsaw mission completed. We spoke with directors at two big expo centers and visited two train stations. We gathered lots of great information. Most important is if and when we send a bus we need to be registered as a safe organization. We also were fortunate enough to have two moms and two daughters join us for the trip back. All wanted to start a life in Vienna, and get their daughters into school so we dropped them at the sport center here.
We ended up staying the night as there was just to many places to visit, fortunately {{redacted}}’s mom lives in Warsaw and was very accommodating.
What we learned. Warsaw is on top of it. The train stations are set up as way points for people passing through including tents for four to six hour stays and for 24 hour stays. People who stay longer get moved to one of their big sites. Those sites are huge.
The Modinska center is planning on the long term with building a Ukrainian village of individual living spaces in a big expo center and warehouse with an events center nearby for employment. Their needs are medicine and supplies(money) for their construction project. Their director is a man on a mission. They also have busses leaving for other parts of Europe daily. They do not feel their is a need for a Vienna bus, unless Vienna/Austria comes up with a long term solution, just changing humanitarian centers is not logical to their director.
The Ptak Expo center is huge and has room for tens of thousands, but hopefully it will not be necessary. They have buses leaving daily for places in Europe. There is a bus every other day to Vienna. The most popular destinations are Spain and France, they could use a UK bus. Once we pinned down and talked with the director she did give approval for us to take our passengers.