Jan Zabelski shares his work with the Happy Kids Foundation to help Ukraine’s orphans

When war broke out in Ukraine, a Polish charity called the Happy Kids Foundation stepped in to help hundreds of Ukraine’s orphans escape into Poland — and Zalando’s Jan Zabelski, a long-term volunteer for Happy Kids, was at the border to help.

Based in Lodz, Poland, Happy Kids is an NGO which deals with family foster care houses for children, and on behalf of the Ukrainian government they evacuated children from orphanages. Zalando has supported the NGO with financial and in kind donation (clothing), and a few employees were invited to help them set up a trampoline and a pool for the kids. While he was there, Kamil Mirowski, Public Affairs, caught up with Jan to find out more…

KM: Just to start, can you tell me about your role at Zalando?

JZ: Yes, I’m based in Berlin, Germany and I’ve been working in Zalando’s re-commerce department since 2021. I’m in charge of everything that extends items’ lives. It’s about changing an item from a one-time purchase by a single person, into something that’s valuable to many people and generations. I’m also responsible for Pre-owned at Zalando.

KM: What’s the Happy Kids Foundation?

JZ: I’ve been volunteering with Happy Kids for a long time now, along with members of my family. It’s a charity in Poland that looks after children who don’t have any parental care. The foundation has 17 family orphanages, with up to eight residents in each. These families provide security and stability and give them a chance to develop. The families also take care of the children’s medical needs, because many of those in foster care struggle with health problems.

KM: What happened after the conflict broke out?

JZ: The Foundation’s president, Aleksander Kartasinski, knew it was necessary to act immediately. The outbreak of war in Ukraine meant a dramatic situation for children who lived in orphanages or were in other forms of foster care. Often in those orphanages, there would be times when thirty or even forty children would be cared for by one person. Aleksander established contact with the Ukrainian government, so that they could jointly organize the evacuation of the children. We mainly focused on areas where hostilities were ongoing, as well as theoretically safer parts of Ukraine — people were afraid that the war would arrive at the doors of their homes.

KM: What was your involvement?

JZ: I think all of us were terribly affected mentally by this war. It looked like we were working normally, but when we were in the office or in meetings, our thoughts were completely elsewhere. My sister and some friends went to the border to start organizing to receive the evacuated children. I could not sit idly by. I contacted my team leader, Roberto, and told him, “Listen, I’m not able to work. I have to act. I have to go and focus on helping the children at the border”. The whole team reacted in an awesome way to my decision! They offered to take over my duties so that I could take time off, and so I disappeared from work for two weeks. The same day I took the train to Ostbanhof, and the next morning I was at the border with Ukraine.

KM: It must have been very stressful?

JZ: I don’t know if there was a time for stress there — but it was a time of incredible commitment!

We knew we had to get as close as possible to the border points. Procedures were often created on the fly; it was like building an airplane in flight. We came to an agreement with the Ukrainian ministry that they would send us the information about the children: the list of names, which orphanages they were from, and which buses they were coming on to a particular border crossing.

We made arrangements with the customs officials so that the children could enter the inter-boundary zone as soon as possible. Let’s remember that it was the beginning of March, a very cold time of year. The children had travelled for five or six days at a time on the bus — sometimes they had food, sometimes not; there were times when they had a chance for some rest and to take care of their needs, outside the bus, but not always. We picked them up from the coach, organized for them to use the toilets and prepared food packages. There was no shortage of provisions provided by Facebook groups, Caritas, PAH, and various other organizations.

Sometimes, we took care of 150 children at once, from a seven-day-old newborn right up to almost fully-grown.

There were coaches waiting for them, which were either paid for out of our own budget or financed by partner companies. They were going to safe places that the Foundation had found for them. But it wasn’t enough just to give them a place for five days and then say: “Make it on your own.” We had to find partners, local governments, organizations, and lots of individuals who could pledge to take the children for six months or even a year.

It was incredibly motivating. And the children were so happy when they arrived in Poland! They asked us: “Is this Poland already?”

KM: Were they worried about their safety?

JZ: The hardest part was looking at their caregivers. Because it was the caregivers who had to organize the evacuation: they had often gone five days without sleep, and they still didn’t really know what was waiting for them. They also had to trust that, as the Happy Kids Foundation, we could provide a safe harbour for the children.

KM: What have you personally taken away from the experience?

JZ: There is the joy in how lucky I’ve been in my twenty-nine years of life. These children have had a terrible start. They were given away, then the war destabilized their lives completely. I was so pleased to be able to have a positive impact.

KM: Can you tell us what’s happening now?

JZ: Myself and the other volunteers spent several weeks at the border. Now, the evacuation processes have been taken over by the governments. The Happy Kids Foundation has 1,500 children under its care, and probably twice as many are now being looked after by other foundations.

Helping them is not a sprint, but a marathon. And now, the critical thing is not what has been, but what will be: providing these children with help, not just for a few months, but for the future.

KM: Looking to the future, what needs to happen next?

JZ: It’s extremely important that this project involves not only state organizations, but also organizations like Zalando. No single foundation or well-intentioned group will fix this crisis. It is a gigantic marathon, where great resources and incredible teamwork are needed.