In a Warsaw suburb near the Radość railway station, Belarusian emigrants gather around a van carrying food. The distribution is organized by Siarhei Melianets, a Belarusian Christian preacher, musician, and poet who, after being forced to leave Belarus, now helps families in need in Poland.
Melianets grew up in a Protestant family, consciously embraced faith at 17, graduated from a seminary, wrote poetry and songs, raised seven children with his wife, and ran a small roller-shutter business. In 2020, he supported the protests in Belarus. On August 10, 2020, he was detained in central Minsk, where he had gone to pray; after being beaten and repeatedly shocked with a stun gun, he was taken to hospital in critical condition.
The family later faced further pressure: inspections, threats, interrogations, and Melianets’s arrest after the trial of journalist Ihar Karnei in March of last year. After 25 days in detention, he was unexpectedly released, and the family left for Poland immediately.
For the first months, the Melianets family lived at a church and then struggled to find housing. According to Siarhei, landlords were reluctant to rent to a large family. Eventually, they were allowed to move into an apartment damaged by flooding; they now live there, slowly repairing it and paying reduced rent.
To support the family, Siarhei works two jobs: selling freshly squeezed pomegranate juice in a shopping mall and cleaning floors at a car dealership with his son. At the same time, he works with the Christian foundation Joy, which receives food close to its expiration date through Poland’s Bank żywności and passes it on to people in need.
Over time, Melianets created the #food4bel initiative: a Telegram chat and a Facebook group used to coordinate aid. According to him, the chat includes more than 400 families, mostly Belarusian; in addition, more than 160 Ukrainian families regularly receive food assistance. Volunteers not only collect and distribute food, but also help one another with fuel, loading, medical care, and logistics.
“For Siarhei, helping Belarusians in distress is no longer just volunteering, but a mission,” the article says.
The distributions are not always easy: there were complaints in central Warsaw, so some meetings were moved closer to the station. Despite unstable work, missing documents, and an uncertain future, Melianets continues helping others while caring for his family and remaining active in church life.