The Ocalenie Foundation is celebrating its 20th anniversary on May 30th, 2020! We started planning our huge birthday party in February but as we all know, the world had other plans.
Even though we cannot throw the party during the epidemic, we will still appreciate getting presents from our supporters!
GET US A GIFT >>>
Twenty years of Ocalenie
Ocalenie Foundation today
We continue to work for migrants and refugees in Poland. We support children and adults, helping around 3,000 people every year. We are currently the largest and the oldest organization working for migrants in Poland. All our help is free of charge.
We run Help Center for Foreigners in Warsaw and Help Center for Foreigners in Łomża, operating as a one-stop shop for migrants. We offer support in everyday matters: we help to fill out official forms, enroll a child in kindergarten, contact the health service or write a CV. We also provide specialist legal and psychological assistance. The support of cultural mentors offered at the Centers is available in 11 languages. They are used by around 2700 people from 80 different countries every year.
We also offer Polish language courses for foreigners, run by volunteers. There are around 400-500 students each trimester.
Systemic assistance for refugees and asylum seekers in Poland is insufficient, and the largest part of them are women and families with children. With their needs in mind, we run housing and integration support programs: Witaj w Domu (Welcome Home) and Refugees Welcome Polska. Through those initiatives we fight poverty, marginalization and homelessness among our clients.
We also provide in-kind support to foreigners, running Magazin: a charity shop currently serving more than 630 people.
Caring for the development opportunities of children from refugee families, we help them with learning and offer fun activities. 55 children use support from mentors in Warsaw, and 50 kids use an after-school club in Łomża. In 2019 we arranged summer vacation for 57 kids.
COVID-19 crisis response
The COVID-19 outbreak hit the group we are working with very hard. Due to the lockdown, many of our clients have lost their jobs and shelter. We need increased financial resources to respond to the growing needs: food aid, rent subsidies, psychological and legal support.
Despite the epidemic, we are operating! Legal counseling, psychotherapy, support of cultural mentors, Polish courses and tutoring for children are available remotely. We provide regular information about the epidemiological situation and its consequences for foreigners in 9 languages. We organize and distribute food aid for more than 400 people, but the needs are much bigger and still growing. We would be grateful if you would consider supporting Ocalenie Foundation in those challenging times.
Get us a gift!
We can continue our work thanks to our donors’ contributions. This is why we ask you to celebrate our 20th anniversary by getting us a gift – a donation to support our efforts.