Internationaler Bund Polska - Poland

Helping refugees in need in Poland

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, more than 200 thousand war refugees have arrived in the Małopolska region. These people, mainly women with children, require both material and linguistic/informational support. There are currently approximately 220,000 Refugees in Kraków, with over 1,000 people visiting the association’s clothing warehouse every day.

The Multicultural Center and its Information Point for Foreigners

The Multicultural Center and its Information Point for Foreigners have been involved in providing and coordinating assistance to refugees since the outbreak of war. 

Though this center, the association wants to help the refugees in two main areas of need:

• distributing aid packages from the products collected in the warehouses (at the moment, the products are handed out to about 2000 people a day). When they arrive in Poland, the refugees often do not have a lot of clothes. The association wants to provide them with clothing and underwear
• creating a systematic support for individual refugees to help them find their way in the Polish institutional and legal reality. At the moment the Information Point serves min. 500 refugees per day

Both actions require long-term engagement of people who will be able to systemically take care of the realization, the coordination and the logistic support of these two activities. For that purpose, it is necessary to organize volunteers to support the collection, segregation and delivery of items. Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the activities have been largely based on volunteer work. However, the association is noticing a reduction in the involvement and a loss of strength on the part of volunteers. Taking into account the unpredictable duration of the war as well as the number of people requiring support, the goals of the association is to build and support systemic and long-term activities, with engaged volunteers.

“Wardrobe of Good”

Since the beginning of March, the association has launched the “Wardrobe of Good'' initiative (operating Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm) as an additional response to emerging needs. It is located in a former shopping mall in Krakow (Plaza Shopping Center) made available to them for 1PLN by the company STRABAG and equipped with furniture donated by individuals and companies. Over 100 000 pieces of clothing and footwear have already been distributed. Up to 1 200 Ukrainian refugees are coming to the Wardrobe of Good on a daily basis. 

The foundation is receiving clothing and footwear donations mostly from individuals, organizations and companies. However they desperately miss new underwear that they need to purchase to serve the Ukrainian refugees.

With the Air Liquide Foundation endowment, they selected a Contractor to supply underwears, purchased them and they are distributing them in the clothing store. They also distribute hygiene products to women.

The Air Liquide Foundation’s contribution

The Air Liquide Foundation is supporting the purchase of underwear and hygiene products for 5000 Ukrainian refugee women.