Hope amid crisis
One year of UNICEF’s response in Poland for children and families fleeing war in Ukraine
- Available in:
- English
- Polish
An unprecedented refugee crisis
The children and families of Ukraine have endured over 365 days of violence, trauma, loss, destruction and displacement since the war escalated in February 2022.
The war has caused the fastest displacement crisis in the world, and the largest in Europe, since World War II. At the peak of the displacement there were an estimated 3.5 million refugees from Ukraine in Poland. There are currently more than 1.5 million registered refugees from Ukraine in Poland. Around 90% are women and children.
Following the outbreak of the war, UNICEF worked quickly to establish a humanitarian response office in Poland and establish partnerships with central government ministries, municipalities and NGOs to keep refugee children learning and ensure families are healthy and safe.
Every one of these refugees has been forced to leave their homes, their loved-ones, their friends, their belongings, their schools. Everything they have known. UNICEF staff from across the region and around the globe surged to Poland to build a crisis response from the ground up.
KEEPING CHILDREN LEARNING
KEEPING CHILDREN PROTECTED
KEEPING CHILDREN HEALTHY
Working in partnership with Poland and its people
Over the past year, our role has been to strengthen existing capacity and support systems already in place, which have been severely stretched by the scale of this crisis.
In Poland, a high-income country and EU member state, the context means that partnerships are even more key than other humanitarian responses. UNICEF has not looked to set up parallel structures, instead we have co-designed and worked alongside the Polish government at local and central levels, and with civil society to provide technical expertise, supplies, resources and capacity building.
Staying to support
A year on, the war and suffering continue. This remains an emergency. Families who have fled from the war into Poland continue to need our help. We stand with the children of Ukraine and will continue working with partners to support them through this war and beyond. We will remain in Poland as long as our presence is needed. Our vital efforts would not be possible without the support of public and private donors and for this we are truly grateful. We count on the continued support of individual, corporate, as well as government donors, so we can keep delivering for children in Poland who’ve fled war.
