Perła helps Ukraine
Beer producer from Lublin actively helps refugees from a struggling country.
The tragedy of our Ukrainian neighbours awoke Polish people’s compassion, empathy and readiness to provide selfless help. Thousands of individuals, organisations, institutions and enterprises joined the series of initiatives.
Solidarity with those in need was also shown by Perła – Browary Lubelskie S.A., one of the most famous companies in our region.
– Shortly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, when the first refugees began to arrive in our voivodeship, we decided to take a very unusual step. We decided to temporarily abandon advertising communication on the Perła brand profile on Facebook in order to use its considerable reach to provide information related to the organisation of assistance for people from Ukraine coming to the Lublin region. Of course, it is not just about initiatives organised by our company, although in a relatively short time, we managed to launch a number of them having in mind our Ukrainian neighbours – says Andrzej Rutkowski, CEO of Perła – Browary Lubelskie S.A.
Both of Perła’s company premises in Lublin were involved in helping refugees from Ukraine. Perłowa Pijalnia Piwa located at Bernardyńska 15A every day from 1 PM to 5 PM invites people in need from Ukraine for a warm, free meal. Information about this is also provided on our social media in Ukrainian. People who have found shelter in places where they are not provided with a warm meal are encouraged to take advantage of this form of assistance. The second place – Perła Sport Pub – prepares lunches every day for people who have found themselves in temporary accommodation facilities run in the MOSIR hall named after Zygmunt Niedziela and in the sports hall at the athletics stadium. There are people whose situation is particularly difficult because they could not count on help from, for example, family or friends living in Poland, and immediately after crossing the border, they themselves asked for help at the reception points.
– In addition to the actions initiated directly by us for Ukraine, we also managed to significantly support some of the initiatives carried out by other entities. Responding to the request of the city of Lublin, Perła purchased 250 sets of bed linen, blankets and towels for the needs of the accommodation points located here for people fleeing the war. I must admit that an additional difficulty was finding a place where you could buy such a large amount of this assortment at once because the stocks in stores and wholesalers have recently dwindled to almost zero. Finally, we urgently ordered this bedding to be sewn. Earlier, we also provided warehouse space in our brewery at Bernardyńska for the collection of gifts for Ukrainian refugees initiated by the City Hall. In turn, at the request of Caritas of the Lublin Archdiocese, we purchased a wholesale amount of canned goods, which Caritas will deliver directly to Ukraine in one of the transports it organises. In addition, we provided material support to the Dom Fundacji Jana Pawła II foundation in Lublin, where refugees from Ukraine also found shelter.
I would like to declare that we are already thinking about taking further actions through which our company will be able to express solidarity with the nation of Ukraine and provide measurable support to its citizens who came from the war-torn country to the Lublin region. In the past, Perła has repeatedly shown commitment to matters important to our region, so now, in such a tumultuous period, we will not remain indifferent to its needs – emphasizes Andrzej Rutkowski.
