Hollywood star Sean Penn yesterday signed an agreement with the mayor of Kraków for the non-profit organisation he founded, CORE, to help the Polish city deal with an ongoing influx of refugees from Ukraine.
The actor praised the Polish people, government and local authorities for the hospitality they have shown towards the more than two million refugees from Ukraine who have crossed the border into Poland since Russia’s invasion.
But he added that “this is a crisis that no government can deal with on its own. In the face of a crisis for the whole world, the private and public sectors must work together.”
Under the agreement, CORE – which was founded by Penn and Ann Lee to offer relief to Haiti in the wake of the 2010 earthquake – will provide organisational and material support to Kraków. It will also use its experience in previous humanitarian crises to advise the authorities on their response.
Lee revealed that the NGO has already raised money in the US to help Ukrainians, and is providing support in both Poland and Romania, where over half a million refugees have arrived.
Penn himself was in Ukraine working on a documentary when Russia invaded, and was among those who then fled across the border into Poland.
Myself & two colleagues walked miles to the Polish border after abandoning our car on the side of the road. Almost all the cars in this photo carry women & children only, most without any sign of luggage, and a car their only possession of value. pic.twitter.com/XSwCDgYVSH
— Sean Penn (@SeanPenn) February 28, 2022
Kraków has been one of the major destinations for those who have reached Poland. Around 130,000 refugees are currently living there, reported Gazeta Wyborcza on Monday, meaning the city’s population has increased by around 16% in the space of a month.
Like some other large Polish cities, Kraków has warned that it is struggling to accommodate and support those who have already arrived, let alone the thousands who continue to come.
The city’s deputy mayor, Andrzej Kulig, thanked Penn yesterday for his support, saying that CORE would provide valuable “know-how” for solving both “minor problems and deeper crises”.
Main image credit: Jakub Porzycki / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
