Packing parcels for Poland that bring a touch of joy

Unsung saints
FOR the last 20 years over 100 Polish families, whose survival has been a constant battle against poverty and political unrest, have benefited from the extreme generosity of Emmanuela Toporowska.
70-year-old Mrs Toporowska, although Polish, has lived in England for half her life. Every month she sends parcels of clothing, sweets and toiletries to poor families in the more remote areas of Poland, particularly to those with children.
The number of parcels she sent rose dramatically after 1981 when Poland went under marshal law for two years and conditions worsened. The political situation has now improved but there is still much hardship and there are 28 families who receive the parcels. People have come to rely on her to make their lives a little easier.
Mrs Toporowska's goddaughter helps with the packing and the collection of clothing and other articles and the transport of the parcels is done by a group that she formed called the "martyr group" although she handles all of the documentation herself.
Members of the group come and collect the parcels and take them to London and they are then transported to Poland by road as it is cheaper than sending them by air. and some of the parcels weigh up to 10 kilos. If Mrs Toporowska
travels to Poland, she goes by aeroplane.
In order to send something extra to the Polish families at Christmas and Easter she takes in foreign and university students and then uses the money to cover the increased expenses.
When she first moved to Oxford 36 years ago, she lived in digs with her husband and eventually moved into the house where she now lives and where her children grew up.
She said she feels as though she is repaying a debt to humanity, that when she was a young mother struggling to bring up five children in a foreign country people were very kind to her, and she feels she must help other needy families now that she is able to.