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Description
The project responds to the need for integration activities in Poland resulting from the increased number of refugees in our country. The majority of them came from Ukraine, but in this project we also target people from other countries. Although there have been migrants in Poland for many years, still no government document regulating migration policy has been adopted. The document created a few years ago has been invalidated, so many responsibilities in this area are taken over by NGOs and local governments. The aim of the project is to support integration activities, which we understand as activities addressed both to newcomers and people who take them in. As part of the project, we employ an intercultural assistant who supports the school attended by refugee children and helps refugees. We conduct Polish as a second language classes and intercultural activities in the model of an outdoor education. We run workshops for teaching staff working in an intercultural environment and a series of meetings with women from Active Women''s Clubs in the Lublin area. The project also includes a series of online lectures on the situation of refugees in Poland and in their country of origin, as well as an online social campaign. The project''s beneficiaries are refugees, the local community, teaching staff, pre-school children (Polish and foreign) and people using social media (as recipients of the campaign).
Summary of project results
In the project, we wanted to focus on solving the problem of the lack of effective integration activities. On the one hand, Poland is accepting more and more foreigners, on the other hand, a migration policy has not yet been developed that would allow determining the direction in which "reception" activities should go. Particularly important is integration support for refugees who were forced to leave their countries, often overnight, and start life in another country without prior preparation.
Additionally, there is a lack of educational and information activities for the host community. There is still a belief in many circles that the best adaptation strategy is assimilation, that those arriving should make the most effort learning the language, culture and customs of the country they came to, while forgetting about their cultural/national or religious identity. We wanted to make people aware that integration is a two-sided process and also requires the involvement of the receiving party. We wanted to provide knowledge that would help understand the situation of refugees staying in Poland, but also provide an opportunity to meet and get to know each other.
In the project, we also wanted to focus on refugee people regardless of their country of origin. We wanted to break the trend that the Polish authorities started after February 24, 2022, "favoring" refugees from Ukraine. We did not agree to such discriminatory actions.
The project implementation period coincided with the fifteenth anniversary of our work with and for refugees. We also wanted to share our experience and reach a wider audience with our activities.
The activities carried out include:
- Polish language classes, which allowed refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine not only to learn Polish, but also to become familiar with Polish culture and customs,
- support offered by an intercultural assistant. The employed assistant supported 2 educational institutions attended by 44 people who came to Poland from Ukraine,
- thanks to intercultural workshops, we were able to provide educational support to children living in the Center for Foreigners in Łuków,
- online lectures addressed to the host community provided knowledge about the situation of refugees in Poland and in their countries of origin. Lectures in Ukrainian explained what psychological well-being is, what to pay attention to when signing a lease and employment contract, and what an intercultural assistantship is,
- intercultural training allowed to strengthen the competences of the "For the Earth" Association team and people working every day in a culturally diverse environment,
- a series of training sessions devoted to working with people experiencing migration allowed 102 people representing 70 organizations and institutions to become familiar with the innovative JES-PL method of learning Polish as a foreign language. Its co-author is the trainer prof. Małgorzata Pamuła-Behrens,
- we visited 6 towns in the Lublin region, where we organized Women''s Intercultural Meetings. They were an opportunity to learn about the situation of refugees in Poland and share personal stories. In total, we managed to gather 99 women at the meetings,
- the project also included communication and campaign activities. On our website and on our social media profiles (Facebook and Instagram), we kept up to date on the progress of the project. We produced 3 viral videos and a film about the Association. 24 materials about project activities were published in online and traditional media.
On-site lessons of Polish as a foreign language in Suchowola and Bezwola for a group of 31 people from Afghanistan: "Thanks to Polish language lessons, refugees integrated with the community. They quickly gained the ability to understand basic phrases and each week they used Polish more and more boldly. It was noticeable that some women made friends with Polish women, visited them or invited them to their apartment. Summarized by the lecturer - Dorota Iwanejko.
Online classes, conducted by Renata Kożuch-Sierociuk, are an opportunity for people from Afghanistan staying in Poland: "The classes are a space of integration for people with different education and life experience."
2. Without the help of the Intercultural Assistant, the group of 44 Ukrainian children and youth would be left to their own devices. They have not been adequately addressed in any of these places. What Olga Mazur did for them "went beyond" ordinary work. It means full care, commitment, and seeking support in difficult situations.
3. Intercultural workshops for children of preschool and early school age provide development for the children themselves, as well as introducing issues related to refugees to the Polish society through peer contacts.
4. Women''s Intercultural Meetings are our key activity. These direct meetings, conversations, telling stories lead to establishing real contact and sometimes friendship.
5. Online lectures have increased the knowledge of Polish society on refugee issues. And the attention addressed to migrants and refugees, in turn, increased their level of knowledge about their rights.
6. Thanks to the training conducted by prof. M. Pamułę-Behrens 102 people learned how to work with foreign students using the JES-PL method.
7. Thanks to promotional and communication activities, our organization and the Program have become visible. We stop being an anonymous organization and become visible.