Borowska. Wants to live in Israel
Photo: Yeruham Mendola
Polish girl helps treat rocket casualties
Dominika Borowska, 21, who has been thrown into war zone as volunteer for MDA emergency services in Ashkelon, says her dream has come true
She is only 21 years old and landed in Israel
just a month ago, but Jewish Pole Dominika Borowska, who has been thrown into the war zone as a volunteer for the Magen David Adom emergency services in Ashkelon, couldn't be happier.
"I have really fallen in love with this country and the warmth of the people around me," Borowska said this week. She is in Israel as part of a joint program of MDA and the Jewish Agency, which brings Jewish youth to volunteer in the country.
Upon her arrival Borowska was stationed at the MDA unit in Ashkelon, but when the fighting in the south broke out she was given the possibility of moving to another unit far from the rockets, but chose to stay.
"Yesterday we were alerted to the landing site of one of the rockets where a young man had been killed," she said. "Our team treated a man who was lightly injured by shrapnel.
"It felt amazing to be part of an MDA mission and save someone's life," she added.
Prior to her arrival in Israel, Borowska was trained at the Polish Red Cross, and in Israel she underwent a Magen David Adom first aid training course.
She is one of five young people living in a Jewish Agency absorption center in Ashkelon and taking part in a special MDA for volunteers from abroad. Hundreds of volunteers have already completed their first aid course as part of the project and have worked on MDA ambulances across the country over the past year.
The project's coordinator, Sara Kashula, said that four of the five volunteers were not expected to return to Ashkelon. Two are on vacation abroad and are planning to extend it. The third one has left to stay with relatives in central Israel, beyond the rocket range, and the fourth is still thinking about it.
"Dominika is the only one who has kept her commitment and is not leaving," she said.
Don’t your parents in Poland worry about you when they see what's happening here on television?
"Of course they worry about me, especially during the war, but they know that I'm a responsible girl and that I'm in a place where my safety is being looked after.
"At first, when my parents called and told me about the broadcasts on the Polish television which covered the Israeli bombings in Gaza, they were calm. But they soon learned that Hamas was responding and attacking Israel with dozens of missiles, including in Ashkelon.
"The worried phone calls came shortly afterwards, and in the calls they attempted to understand the real situation and whether I was outside the range of danger. I told them I was."
And what about you? Aren't you afraid? You walk around the rocket landing sites all day.
"I would be lying if I said I wasn't completely frightened, but I feel I must help people at this time. I've dreamt about this moment all my life. My family and friends beg me to come back, but I want to stay until the completion of my volunteering period at the end of January."
And what will happen then? Will you come back for a visit?
"Then I’ll come back to live here. There's no other place for me in the world."
