“Before the war, we were in a sense already prepared. Everyone was saying something was going to happen. So we had an emergency bag packed with some money and identification documents, and kept it next to the bed. And on the first morning at 4:30 a.m., I went into the kitchen and heard explosions. We live in the district of Kyiv near to Irpin and Vorzel, where Russian troops had already entered.
I went and woke my daughter, saying, ‘Wake up, it’s war.’
She said, ‘It’s impossible!’
And I said, ‘The war has started, we’ve got to leave.’
‘Where to?’
‘To Liza’, my granddaughter who lives in Warsaw.
Olena is a Ukrainian refugee living in Poland. Like thousands of other refugees, Olena faced many challenges and needed support and resources to adjust to life in Poland and integrate into society.
In the aftermath of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, the Ukrainian House, an organization dedicated to supporting the Ukrainian community in Poland through information, educational and cultural activities, underwent a rapid transformation. It significantly expanded its activities to help thousands of war-displaced people. Unfortunately, by 2024, funding had largely dried up due to international cuts to humanitarian assistance.
In 2024, CDP awarded a grant from the CDP Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Recovery Fund to Ukrainian House to increase and improve the participation, integration, and effective social and economic inclusion of Ukrainian refugees in society, better enabling them to reach their potential and counteract social exclusion and discrimination.
The grant from CDP came at a pivotal moment. It provided the Ukrainian House with much-needed resources to continue its work as a holistic support center for Ukrainians in Poland. From their support center in Warsaw, the Ukrainian House operates a consultation point and virtual infoline that offers tailored individual information, advice and assistance on a wide range of everyday issues Ukrainian refugees face.
