Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine broke out in February of this year, the impact has reverberated around the world, affecting individuals and companies in both predictable and unpredictable ways. For businesses in central Europe, the crisis is close—enough so that some are directly experiencing some of the fallout, from the arrival of refugees to supply chain disruptions and company closures. However, they are also potentially poised to help. Sewio, a real-time location system (RTLS) company unaffected by the business disruptions, has found itself near enough to be in a position to offer help.
Worldwide, decisions being made on a company level vary, from issuing statements of support for Ukraine to ceasing business in Russia, to providing financial support to help civilians flee the conflict. For those at Sewio, headquartered in Brno, Czech Republic (Czechia), the invasion came within a day’s drive of their border, and for many working there it had personal implications. Their friends and acquaintances were among those fleeing the destruction. Those heading up the ultra-wideband (UWB) technology company thus chose to address the challenge as a company, says Milan Simek, Sewio’s CEO. Its local imperative was to help those in peril escape safely from the Ukraine, into Czechia.
Sewio’s RTLS solutions have been deployed to help locate assets, inventory and personnel in manufacturing environments (see Cisco, Sewio Team Up Regarding Ultra-Wideband Access Points, How to Select and Leverage UWB RFID for Personnel Tracking, and UWB Opens the Window for Production Sequencing, Digital Twins). The invasion did not immediately impact the company’s business, Simek says, since the majority of its technology users and partners are located in the United States or Western Europe. So although the company has decided to halt business activities in Russia, he says, the war did not affect its existing business.
There have been exceptions, however. Some of the company’s automotive customers in the European Union have Tier 1 suppliers located in Ukraine. Therefore, the deliveries of components and materials came to a halt during the first weeks of the invasion. Because business continues and the company has been growing in recent years, Sewio found itself in a position to provide assistance. The firm is situated in the southeastern portion of Czechia, with the neighboring countries of Poland and Slovakia separating the Czech and Ukraine borders by approximately 700 miles (1,130 kilometers).
Milan Simek
On the day the invasion of Ukraine reverberated throughout Europe, Sewio called an all-hands meeting. “We wanted to find the best ways to systematically support people who, within hours, were dragged from their ordinary lives and thrown into an unbelievable disaster,” Simek recalls. While funds were flowing to Ukrainian companies and relief organizations, Sewio focused on additional ways in which it could help. Many at the firm directly or indirectly knew people making their way west, out of Ukraine.
Sewio offered every employee up to three paid days to join a volunteer activity that would benefit the Ukrainian people. “In addition,” Simek states, “we created a company-run fund to use extra money on these activities.” In this effort, Sewio joined 11 other local businesses to create the David and Goliath Program, which pools the resources of all these firms to help the victims of the invasion. Sewio team members each selected their own three-day projects. “Decentralization really played a huge role here,” Simek recalls. “Almost everyone was doing a unique activity, yet they were able to access a communal fund.”
Volunteers did a lot of driving, Simek says. One person drove all the way to the Ukraine border and back, in order to deliver refugees to safety. Another rented and prepared apartments for them, while others helped to fill trucks with goods from humanitarian aid efforts. Still other team members supplied groceries for those who had just reached a place of safety, as well as collecting furniture to donate.
Petr Passinger
Those who drove refugees gained contacts with the people making their way west. They could be reached at the border of Sighetu Marmației, Romania, a nine-hour drive from Brno. There, volunteers waited for people to cross the border—which took two more hours, on average—then drove back. The border at Vyšné Nemecké, Slovakia, could be reached within seven hours, but the wait time there was up to 12 hours during the peak of the refugee crisis. Poland was the other transition point, in the city of Medyka, about a six-hour drive from Brno, with border-crossing waits of up to 16 hours.
To assist those crossing any of the three borders, volunteers began driving in the morning, reached the crowded borders at night, then parked and waited, says Petr Passinger, Sewio’s CMO. “The issue is that the refugees never know how long they will wait in the line to cross,” he explains, but drivers had to remain in their cars, ready to take them to their temporary new homes. Typically, sometime during the night, their Ukrainian passengers crossed the border, at which point the journey back began. That meant two days in the car, at a minimum.
Passinger and his family felt an especially personal connection to the crisis, he says. A team of Ukrainian workers had built his house the year prior, and he had forged a relationship with some of them. When the invasion occurred, he reached out to them, and those he was able to contact said they needed assistance getting their families to safety. Passinger has since helped to ensure the safe housing of three families in Brno.
One person supported by the Sewio volunteers, who has asked to be called Yulia, was already in Brno when the invasion broke out, visiting her husband who had a three-month work visa in the country. She and her four-year-old son were scheduled to return home to Ukraine the following day. “Our return flight to Kyiv was scheduled for [Feb. 24],” she says, “from Pardubice [in Czechia].” They travelled to the city the night before the flight, then received a text message that their flight was cancelled. “Then I saw messages from my relatives that the war had started… so my son and I were forced to return from Pardubice back to Brno, where my husband was waiting for us.”
While the family is trying to set up a new life in the Czech Republic, with their son now attending kindergarten there, they are following the situation that many in their families are still enduring. The mother, father and sister of Yulia’s husband still remain near Kyiv, while her own mother and two nephews remain in the Chernigove region, which the Russian Army occupied during the invasion’s first days. “They cannot leave,” she states, “because of destroyed bridges and constant shelling.”
Although talk of war was underway well before the invasion, it still caught Yulia’s family and other Ukrainians by surprise. “The government warned citizens of a possible invasion by Russia,” she states, “but frankly, no one fully believed that this could happen in the civilized world.” Yulia is still in contact with family members in the Ukraine and says, “What I see and hear now from my relatives is very frightening. Many people are forced to live in bomb shelters, abandoning their homes in search of a safe place.” The focus now is on an uncertain future.
Sewio has hired several refugees to work at the company on a part-time basis, including Yulia. She and her family have established a life in Brno without knowing what to expect next. How long they will remain in the Czech Republic is an unknown. Yulia has a degree in tourism management, and she worked for one of Ukraine’s largest tour operators for foreign tourism for several years before her son was born. Once she had her baby, she launched a small family business preparing and delivering barbecue dishes in Kyiv, which closed at the onset of the pandemic. She is now starting again.
“I am not sure which position I can apply here now,” Yulia states, “because I do not know the [Czech] language and I’m not able to handle a full-time job [due to childcare issues].” For now, she says, her family is grateful for the support they have received from Sewio, and specifically from Passinger. “He and his family and their friends provided us with everything we needed—clothes and medical services,” as well as arranging her son’s kindergarten placement. As for Sewio, the company has agreed to pay the cost of the family’s housing for the first few months of their stay. “We also appreciate that very much.”
For Sewio’s team, Simek says, the invasion has been an unsettling event that has brought its coworkers closer together. The way all the employees have embraced the challenge before them and have selected their own way of supporting the refugees has built camaraderie. “The fact that everyone in Sewio started to actively support the cause really united our team,” he says, “to a level we have never seen before.”
With the Ukraine invasion now in its second month, Yulia says, the days are stretching out. “For all Ukrainians, this is an eternity,” she adds. “We no longer remember how we lived before.” She worries about the people still in her country and the suffering they are enduring, especially the children. “It’s terribly painful to watch the news every day. We have no tears left.” Still, she tries to envision a better future. “We’re grateful to the world for their support, and hope such a disaster will never happen again… to anyone.”