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Description
The project is intended primarily for migrants from Ukraine, to prevent them being excluded in terms of information, the community, and occupation, by providing them with information and counselling, psychological aid, and training. We adopted this approach based on many years of working to help Ukrainians, and because they are the largest migrant group. There are an estimated 1.5 m Ukrainians in Poland, holding documents confirming the right to reside in Poland (according to Office for Foreigners - July 2020). In addition, Ukrainians come to Poland on visas and under the visa waiver system. This is a group at risk of social exclusion because they do not know the laws in force in Poland, and do not speak Polish well enough. For this reason, our activities will be performed using Ukrainian, and also Russian, English, and Polish where necessary. Under the project, we will operate a bricks-and-mortar consultation center in Warsaw, and a nationwide helpline for migrants, on which Ukrainian women who themselves have experienced migration will give advice on legalization of stay and employment, and the rights and obligations connected with functioning in Poland. They will provide advice on how to deal with various types of crisis, and help with filling in applications and compiling documentation. We also envisage 15 open meetings to provide information on the most common issues raised via the helpline and the consultation center, and two series of training sessions for migrant community leaders (10 people) who wish to become cultural mentors and help people to deal with the authorities and provide them with support when they face hardship. We will also provide psychological aid by running one-on-one psychological counselling (180 hours) and weekly meetings of the mutual support club Friends (Przyjaciele) (40 meetings). Approximately 850 people will be helped in the program.
Summary of project results
The project addresses the problem of exclusion - informational, social and professional - of migrants from Ukraine. People from Ukraine are the most numerous group of migrants in Poland - before Russia''s aggression against Ukraine there were about 1.5 million people; this number doubled in the first half of 2022 precisely because of war refugees. Ukrainians are a group at risk of exclusion due to prejudice against migrants, but also due to unfamiliarity with Polish law and the reality of life in Poland or lack of knowledge of the Polish language to the extent that they can communicate freely.
The project provided information, counselling, psychological and training support to people from Ukraine. The Project Promoter ran an outreach clinic in Warsaw and a national helpline for migrants. More than 14,000 face-to-face, telephone and e-mail consultations were conducted on legalisation of stay, work, functioning in Poland, pandemic regulations and, after the escalation of the war, regulations resulting from the special law on refugees from Ukraine, as well as available housing or financial support. There were also 16 open online information sessions on the topics most frequently reported by the helpline and the counselling centre. A series of training sessions were also held for 14 volunteers to prepare them for their role as cultural mentors. The Project Promoter also provided psychological support through individual counselling (261 in total) and weekly meetings of the mutual support club ''Friends''.
As a result of the project, almost 12,000 people from Ukraine received support to help them through the difficult adaptation process in Poland and to provide them with the necessary information to function in their new place of residence. The implementation of the project largely coincided with the period when almost 2 million war refugees from Ukraine arrived in Poland in a very short space of time. The needs of this group were huge and urgent at that moment, and the Project Promoter was forced to change to a crisis style of work in order to respond to them.