The Saint Nicholas Foundation is working continuously on assistance programmes for Ukrainian kids – both those in Poland and those needing help beyond our Eastern border.
Saint Nicholas Havens
From the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, approximately half a million Ukrainian children of school age arrived in Poland. We want to support them in a systematic manner and are running 60 Saint Nicholas Havens throughout Poland. These are places where kids take part in integration courses, Polish language lessons, and are surrounded by psychological support from Ukrainian-speaking people. Soon the holidays will begin and our charges will take part in day trips, courses and camps financed by us.
Last Friday in the Lomza Saint Nicholas Haven reading workshops were held by Mr Mateusz Goca – a musician from the Lomza philharmonic orchestra. During the workshop, the kids listened to musical fairytales, made bookmarks and had the chance to play different instruments.
In spring, dozens of students from Ukraine who had to leave their homes due to the war arrived at the Jagille in Pokarpacie middle school. Thanks to the Saint Nicholas Haven there, they were able to take part in school trips, are learning Polish, and in summer will be able to organise different types of courses and workshops: Polish language lessons, cooking classes in Polish, art classes, handicrafts and games and sports. Below are some photos from the trip to the adventure park.
The Saint Nicholas Haven in Przemysl is organising sports classes for Ukrainian children twice a week. At the beginning of June, there was a party on the occasion of Children’s Day to which about 100 kids came to play. In August, there will be a summer camp in which a load of attractions are waiting for the children.
We financed a day out on a school trip to Torun for four Ukrainian students from the school in Elblag. The excursion to Torun was a chance for them to see a bit more of Poland and at the same time to further integrate with their classmates from the school. Their impression of the trip was summed up by Lera as follows: “We literally loved everything. Fields and woods, seen from the window the train, reminded us of our own country. After that, Torun amazed us with its unique Old Town and the quantity of tourist attractions. We are so grateful to Saint Nicholas Foundation that we were able to go on the trip with the whole class and get to know the people we are now studying with better.”
Children’s books in Ukrainian
Up to date, our Foundation has already printed 24 000 books for children by most prominent Ukrainian authors. We continue sending them to places most attended by the Ukrainian refugee children: libraries, day care centers, sleeping points, railway stations and schools. Every day Ukrainian moms and their children come to our Warsaw office to pick up these books. Every child who comes to our office also receives a backpack with presents and school supplies.
Here is a thank you note we received from one of the schools which takes part in the distribution programme of our books: „Thank you very much for the books. They are beautiful and they are of great help to the 50 Ukrainian children who attend our primary school nr 115 located in Sadyba district in Warsaw - they were very happy to see books written in their native language. During the ‘little readers’ workshop organised by our school, a first year female student publicly presented a fragment from the book dedicated to the ecological alphabet. It was an important moment for her to present something from her own country to her Polish peers. She was very excited and empowered by this opportunity. Thank you"
Noteworthy is also the fact that we are still cooperating with a number of refugee assistance points where Ukrainian moms come with their children. Such assistance points include freeshops, mom & child rooms located at various railway stations, Ukrainian schools and day care activity centers. In all these locations we continue providing the children with school and art supplies, puzzles, educational books and backpacks.
We have also provided sets of sensory books for blind children in the center in Laski near Warsaw.
International Childrens’ Day
International Childrens’ Day is an important festivity in Poland and we made an extra effort to prepare something very special for the Ukrainian children. In various points around Warsaw we distributed almost 1000 backpacks with gifts, we also took part in the special Polish-Ukrainian childrens’ day celebrations.
How do we help children on the territory of Ukraine?
We are currently focusing our efforts to open Saint Nicholas Haven in Ivano-Frankifsk, a city in Western Ukraine (130 km south east from Lviv), where numerous families with children were internally displaced from Eastern Ukraine. We rented a space for recreation and education center located in the city center, just next to the local playground and a park. The location is currently undergoing renovation and adaptation work to meet the needs of small children. We provide children under our care art and integration activities – which are all so far taking place outside. We are hoping to conclude the renovation works by the end of the summer, so that we will be able to provide the children with adequate facilities in less clement weather conditions.
At the occasion of the International children’s day, we visited the village of Jasień, which hosts children from the orphanage of Chernihovsk. We bought the most needed items such as kitchen supplies, sleeping rooms and the laundry. Children were most excited about the play room full of bean bags and ball-shaped seats.
As a consequence of the war, over 5 million refugees left Ukraine. Three million stay in Central and Eastern European countries, of which about 1,9 million in Poland. 40% of them are children and their needs remain high. Our assistance is crucial for their integration, education and development.
If you wish to help children in need, please donate to: Fundacja Swietego Mikolaja, account numer: 37 2130 0004 2001 0299 9993 0002, help the children of Ukraine
