Secure Internet at Humanitarian Aid Points

Our charity is among the largest local Polish charities, offering support to Ukrainians who seek refuge in Poland and those who remain in the war-torn country, as well as donating medical equipment to hospitals across Ukraine.  
  
GOCC is managing aid centres for refugees in Poland.  
  
Currently, we operate in two locations - one is a super-sized tent located in Warsaw, in the vicinity of a railway station, where we provide Ukrainian refugees with temporary shelter. While they rest we can then give them up to date information on their options onwards into Europe and in Poland.  
  
The second location is on the border crossing of Shegini, where many Ukrainian refugees are fleeing into Poland.  
  
Our volunteers, trained by the Peace Patrol and other activists, are working round the clock supporting Ukrainians waiting hours to cross the border into Poland, as well as, providing continuous aid in Ukraine, reaching thousands of people in hiding in bombed cities.  

  
The cornerstone of our work is the effective coordination and constant communication between all our humanitarian aid points and the headquarters in Warsaw.  
  
The most challenging issues that we were faced with in Shegini in Ukraine were the very weak and unreliable mobile network connection and lack of stable Internet connection which hindered our efforts to operate our aid mission smoothly.  
  
Thanks to the help and in partnership with Smart Aid International we can now rely on state-of-the-art telecom and WiFi solutions provided by Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX.  
  
This technology allows us to improve and increase the aid provided on the ground.  
  
The uninterrupted access to the Internet allows us to follow updates on the conditions in all of the border crossings on both sides.  
  
In addition, it ensures continuous and fail-safe communication between other volunteer groups and frontline workers.  
  
As a result, we can gather and exchange information about needs and fill in the gaps in our response quickly and effectively. It is also important to stress that secure communication boosts the feeling of safety among our volunteer teams on site.