Protezione dei rifugiati in Polonia
Facing the immediate needs of citizens fleeing Ukraine, with a particular focus on women, children and vulnerable persons.
Starting date
15 July 2022Duration
4 monthsRealized by:
Terre des Hommes ItaliaObjectives
Granting timely access to information and appropriate interventions to children, mothers and vulnerable groups fleeing Ukraine, such as: Roma refugees, LGBTQ+ refugees and non- Ukrainian refugees.
Supplying and developing a network of mental health and psycho-social support services, in order to reduce the suffering of both the hosting communities and the refugee communities in Poland.
Strengthening protection services for minors, in order to prevent and tackle all forms of violence, exploitation, abuse, abandonment and damaging behavior.
Training social workers, educators and volunteers on protection during emergencies and on psycho-social support.
As a direct consequence of the conflict in Ukraine, local communities in Poland are seeing a flow of refugee children whose mothers and care-givers — without adequate care — will not be able to access the support and training they need to become independent from their host families. The project includes the following actions:
- Creating safe spaces through programs for those children who might have suffered unprocessed trauma and through English and Polish language courses, psychological counseling and coaching for mothers.
- Fostering the integration of Ukrainian refugees by organizing meetings to share accurate and up-to-date information on resources available in Krakow and helping them to integrate in the community, temporarily or permanently.
- Offering a first-aid service managed by the Ukrainian refugees themselves to inform people on the services available and to offer them psychological and legal support.
- Setting up immigration centers to support the integration of Ukrainian Romas in the community, as they are a vulnerable group often affected by exclusion, discrimination and extreme poverty.
In many Polish villages, childcare for young children is basically non-existent. Even in the areas where there are public childcare services, the increase in demand might cause a competition between Polish and Ukrainian mothers, thus increasing the risk of hostile sentiments towards the newcomers.
To this, other challenges linked to linguistic barriers and psychological trauma are added: many refugees neither speak nor understand Polish and more and more people every day need specific support, which requires an individual approach and a great deal of resources. Yet another considerable challenge is the large number of children in need for education, as well as medical, psychological and at times psychiatric support.
For these reasons the project aims at strengthening the community basic response in favor of refugees from Ukraine, and tackling the lack of social services.
