Ashoka
To read more about how Ashoka Fellows all over the world are responding to the Ukrainian crisis visit www.ashoka.org/pl-pl/ashoka-fellows-responses-ukrainian-crisis,
As we watch a humanitarian crisis unfold in the middle of Europe, Ashoka’s network and community of changemakers are taking action to support the most vulnerable.
Immediate humanitarian responses Ashoka Fellows:
Witold Klaus (PL) – Stowarzyszenie Interwencji Prawnej – is part of the Polish Emergency Response Group coordinating the human services infrastructure and systems at the Polish-Ukrainian border, where over 300 000 people came in just four days to escape the war.
Andrzej Augustyński (PL) – SMH Association – offers facilities and professional care for children from orphanages in Ukraine.
Katarzyna Batko-Tołuć (PL) and Jan Jakub Wygnański (PL) – The Civic Fund – launched several initiatives to coordinate the efforts of CSOs and citizens willing to support people fleeing the war zone to the territory of Poland.
Dorota Komornicka (PL) – Fundusz Lokalny Masywu Śnieżnika – creates refugee reception centers in beautiful places in the mountains, making sure that they can have some peace on their way to a normal life.
Barbara Sadowska (PL) – BARKA – Fundacja Pomocy Wzajemnej – creates a base of places in their communities, social enterprises and the infrastructure they have at their disposal to be able to receive people seeking refuge fleeing from a war-torn country; organizes psychological help; organizes support in the field of Polish language courses for people from Ukraine and translators.
Katarzyna Oleś (PL) – Dobrze Urodzeni – has created and promotes information on giving and receiving birth safely under the challenging conditions.
Ioana Bauer (RO) – eLiberare – is part of the Emergency Response Group and is setting up the human services infrastructure needed at the border by providing one focal point (social workers and translators) to help refugees with different statuses to navigate what is going to happen to them in Romania and what services and goods are provided by either state, NGOs or civil society.
Dorica Dan (RO) – Centrul Noro – provides services and access to medicine and therapies for families and individuals with disabilities or rare diseases and is in contact with the counterpart organizations from Ukraine to communicate their services and offer them to the beneficiaries that are crossing and will cross the Romanian border.
Dagmar Doubravová (CZ) – RUBIKON Centrum – organizes humanitarian support and activates the community around them, primarily for medical equipment.
Inge Missmahl (DE) – Ipso – organizes online psychological support for Ukrainian people. Since 2017 they have trained more than 30 Ukrainian psychologists in Value Based Counseling (VBC) who are offering their services on the online counseling platform www.ipso-care.com in Ukrainian and Russian.
Janina Mirończuk (PL) – Fundacja Światło/The LIGHT Foundation – provided 5 beds for seriously ill people injured in war clashes; employs 2 nurses from Ukraine. They provide rehabilitation rooms with the care of a physiotherapist and would like to take a few children to camps organized for their orphaned children in the summer. They need financial support.
Geertrui Serneels (BE) – Solentra – organized a helpdesk for care providers working with refugees. As specialized war trauma psychologists they offer support to volunteers and professionals who take in refugees. Sometimes they need tools to support the refugees, sometimes they want to tell their own story when the stories they hear become too heavy. That is why Solentra has opened a helpdesk to all professional and voluntary aid workers who receive refugees.
Educational responses by Ashoka Fellows:
Jacek Strzemieczny’s (PL) organization Center for Citizenship Education organizes online training and training materials for parents and teachers on how to talk to kids about the war; they also coordinate a systemic response of the educational system, which will have to accept as soon as possible many children and youth from Ukraine to help them continue their education in Poland.
Agata Teutsch (SI) (PL) – Fundacja Autonomia – works on anti-discrimination guidelines protecting female refugees and creating a truly safe environment for them wherever they arrive.
Teresa Ogrodzińska (PL) – Foundation for the development of children named after Jan Amos Komeński, Fundacja Rozwoju Dzieci – Inspirujemy. Edukujemy. Wspieramy. Od początku. (frd.org.pl) – develops a package of Play Groups for refugees with small children (in Ukrainian).
Dominika Szaciłło (SI) (PL) – Uwaga, śmieciarka jedzie - strona ogólnopolska – is using the incredible reach out of her organization to promote good practices of individual contributions to the humanitarian crisis response.
Jacek Schindler (PL) works with young people equipping them with tools to deal with intercultural conflicts which might arise in multicultural environments that their schools have become as a result of the arrival of 500 000 Ukrainian children and youth in Poland.
Informational responses by Ashoka Fellows:
Mark Hanis (USA) – Progressiveshopper.com – and Alberto Alemanno (BE) – The Good Lobby – are working to hold companies accountable via the Ukraine Corporate Index: www.thegoodlobby.eu/ukraine.
Clara Jiménez Cruz (ESP) – Maldita – developed a website with up-to-date facts, disinformation correction and accurate data on the circumstances surrounding Ukraine, Ukrainefacts.org, and has upkept it together with top fact-checking organizations across the world.
Dominik Księski (PL) – Stowarzyszenie Gazet Lokalnych – who, using the power of the local media, makes sure that the misinformation and fake news campaigns are counteracted and proper information is provided at the very local level.