“Future for Ukraine” Centre opened in Poland

Nov. 2022

According to current UN estimates, approximately 14 million people have been displaced from Ukraine since the outbreak of the war. Children and young people who arrive in neighbouring European countries from war zones are often severely traumatised and find it difficult to return to their new everyday lives. With the funds from the EduCare Europe Fund, the PATRIZIA Foundation supports these children and young people and their accompanying persons. The focus is on the goal of reintroducing them to educational opportunities as quickly and gently as possible. With the opening of the “Future for Ukraine” centre near Warsaw, this goal has now been taken another big step closer.

Donate now

Housing & Education

The Future for Ukraine Centre is located in Ozarow Mazowieckie, about 30 kilometres south of Warsaw. It is run by a long-standing partner organisation of the PATRIZIA Foundation, the Pallottine Order. The facility offers 96 Ukrainian children and their mothers or accompanying persons safe accommodation, food and educational and psychological help to cope with their situation. Specially trained staff help the children to process and overcome trauma in order to be able to participate in educational opportunities again as quickly as possible. In cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the centre therefore also provides additional extracurricular educational opportunities as well as laptops and PCs for the media room.

High-profile guests & moments of hope

In addition to the Rector General of the Pallottine Fathers, Zenon Hanas, and Angelika Jacobi, Managing Director of the PATRIZIA Foundation, a number of high-ranking politicians from Poland also attended the opening ceremony of the “Future for Ukraine” Centre on 16 November.

Among them: the Deputy Marshal of the Polish Parliament (Sejm), Małgorzata Gosiewska, Adam Struzik, Marshal of Mazovia and the UNHCR Protection Officer in Warsaw, Batyr Sapbiyev. Angelika Jacobi: “It was a moment of hope when we cut the ribbon and it suddenly became so clear that the future can happen here again – at least in the form of paving the way for it. That makes me personally very proud.”

Recognising needs, healing trauma

To support the local teachers in their work, the PATRIZIA Foundation in Warsaw offers “Train the Teacher” courses. In these trainings, Ukrainian and Polish teachers learn how to respond to the needs of traumatised children in the best possible way and thus facilitate their way back into everyday school life. The individual developmental phases of young and older children alike are taken into account. The “Train the Teacher” courses are led by two experienced emergency educators from the PATRIZIA Foundation, Beatrice Rutishauser Ramm and Orsi Fulop. The basis of the training is the so-called “Essence of Learning (EoL)”, an emergency pedagogical approach that has proven very successful in a wide variety of crisis situations, but especially in dealing with traumatised children. Further “Train the Teacher” courses are to follow at regular intervals. These are also financed by the EduCare Europe Fund.

Further support also in 2023

The PATRIZIA Foundation would also like to support refugee children and young people next year with the resources of the EduCare Europe Fund. Low-threshold, integrative offers in the form of courses, school support, cultural as well as leisure activities and emergency educational intervention remain at the centre of all activities.

For this, we need your help – and are happy about your donation. Because: every euro counts, gives hope and makes the future possible.

Donate now

Together for a good cause: the Chamonix Hiking Challenge 2024

Sep. 2024 | News-EN

Eversheds Sutherland – The three secrets of ESG

Jul. 2024 | Events-EN, News-EN

PATRIZIA Foundation launches in the UK

Jul. 2024 | Events-EN, News-EN

First Foundation Talk – Frankfurt

Apr. 2024 | News-EN

Snacks & Drinks@PATRIZIA Foundation

Apr. 2024 | Events-EN, News-EN

« Older Entries

Supporters:

PATRIZIA School Buyamba: a school for the whole region

The school for 5 to 14-year-olds is currently very full with 882 pupils. Nevertheless, it is in good condition and lessons take place according to plan. The school is so important to the children that they walk up to ten kilometres a day to learn here. There is no public transport. This is why the boarders stay in two dormitories. They receive additional lessons, some of which last until 9 pm.

You can hear the school choir singing ‘Welcome, welcome, you are very welcome’ from afar as you approach. The pupils form a guard of honour for us. They give us an incredibly warm welcome, dancing and clapping. As a representative of the foundation, Jowita Fuchshofer is invited on stage to greet everyone and express our gratitude for the welcome. The subsequent dialogue with school director Sylvia Nalusuuna is purposeful and very informative for the foundation. It is very important that we meet our partners at eye level and can openly discuss mutual needs and wishes – as in this case.

Group photo with Jowita Fuchshofer, some children and Father Charles

We are allowed to follow the lessons in various classes and share the porridge with the pupils, which they receive during the first break. It is very nutritious and for many children the first meal of the day if they don’t get breakfast at home. During the breaks, it’s all about playing, playing, playing – whether with the foundation’s new balls or with toys they’ve designed themselves. I also tell them stories from Germany with the help of our mascot Hope and teach them a few German words. They say ‘Jowit!’ from everywhere. That’s what the little ones call Jowita Fuchshofer. They want to have her around as a playmate and are always shyly handing her personal letters.

School fees are an obstacle

The school fees are 20,000 Ugandan shillings per term, the equivalent of around 4.50 US dollars. A school year consists of three terms with short or long holidays in between. With an annual nominal per capita gross national product of 747 US dollars, the annual fee of 13.50 dollars is already difficult for some parents to cope with financially. Hardly anyone in Buyamba is employed either; most people here live from gardening or manual labour. Around 100 boarders currently sleep in the dormitories, which were designed for 80 children. The school also houses an improvised pre-school for children from the age of four in a separate area of the dining hall.

As all primary school lessons are taught in English, the preparatory year is very important for the acquisition of language skills. A separate building for the pre-school children could solve the acute lack of space. The headmistress also sees a need for a wall around the school building to ensure the children’s safety. Above all, it should prevent wild animals from entering, but also protect against theft.

So poor and yet so rich

During our time on site, you can see that poverty is tangible everywhere: many children have no shoes, their school uniforms are broken or don’t fit properly.

As in many parts of Africa, drinking water is a problem. There are no wells. This makes the two rain collection containers that we have donated all the more important.

Together with a third one, they provide all the water needed for drinking, personal hygiene and washing clothes – for all the pupils and the parish hall.

Apart from the biros that every child has, there are no private possessions. But that doesn’t seem to be important to them either. Instead, you realise how much they value the community. They help each other and share generously. They seem happy and are always very open and interested in us.

Long-term help pays off

Our first impulse was to hand out sweets to make everyone smile at the same time. But when you take a step back, long-term help is more important. As we have also heard in discussions with those responsible on site, we are on a solid path together. PATRIZIA School Buyamba offers many opportunities to deepen our cooperation. As a foundation, we continue to focus on ensuring that the pupils lack nothing in terms of infrastructure and can concentrate fully on their school education.