HELP for war refugees from Ukraine in Poland

The  Conflict in Ukraine still has a profound effect on the day to day working of our Foundation and much of our effort continues to be directed towards support of Ukrainian families in our region and across Poland.  The refugee population in our immediate vicinity which is the main focus of our support still runs into the thousands, and every day new people arrive to Zywiec.

Our ad hoc arrangements at the beginning of the crisis are becoming more stabilized and established, We recently moved  the  Refugee Help Center to more “fit for purpose”  and longer term accommodation.  This move provided more space for the growing number of support workers and very much improved working conditions for staff and for visitors.  It also houses a pre-school for Ukrainian children and a workshop/ training unit for one of our Ukrainian vocational training groups.  Such is the demand for help we currently work in shifts and we deal with problems, on average,  for more than 500 Ukrainians monthly.

Much of this work continues to be in providing free advice: legal, psychological, Polish language courses and professional courses. We support Ukrainians providing information on their legal status and rights,  making applications and translating  filling documentation for work and social security payments and tax advice.

Another large part of the support provided  is related to medical issues including finding specialized medical treatments, registering visits to doctors and for tests, help purchasing medicines and interpreting during doctor visits.

We still provide also basic needs support with finding housing and also providing a food bank. Our wish is that we can assimilate our Ukraine guests/new residents into our community as quickly and with as little stress as possible.

The level of engagement in these tasks remains high and it seems we will be doing these tasks for a lot longer time but in order to function properly we still very much rely on public donations  especially as State funding is now limited and is seen to be declining.  Please continue to donate to us. Every cent is needed and used well!