Children’s support
The Ocalenie Foundation works on behalf of migrant and refugee children and youth. We strive to provide young people with safe conditions for learning, entertainment and individual development. We run daycare centers and a tutoring and scholarship program, provide psychological and psychiatric assistance, and extend integration support to entire families. We strive to ensure that foreign children have the same educational and developmental opportunities as their Polish peers.
Tutoring program
Since 2018, in cooperation with the BNP Paribas Foundation, we have run the tutoring program Knowledge to the Max, which aims to support the education of children and young people from refugee families, primarily those with learning difficulties and at risk of dropping out. Young people participating in the program (9-18 years old) receive learning support in the form of individual meetings with a volunteer tutor, and, if necessary, private lessons and group classes to prepare for the high school diploma and the 8th-grade exam. They also participate in workshops, integration meetings, and joint educational and cultural outings. Education specialists are in constant contact with the families of children in the program, offering them the necessary support. In the 2024/2025 school year, 100 children are participating in the program, and 30 of them are receiving scholarships to cover education-related costs.
Daycare centers
In Warsaw, we currently run two daycare centers for foreign children. One is located on-site at MAL (Place of Local Activity) and is open to all children with experience of migration, including refugees. The other operates at the refugee accommodation center on ul. Ogrodowa and is attended by children from Ukraine.
At the daycare centers, children receive daily support and care, learning assistance and psychological support. Our main goal is to support them in the educational process. The youngest learn Polish with us, prepare for school activities, and receive individual tutoring if necessary. They also have access to psychological assistance, and participate in outings to cultural institutions and development activities. In 2023, a total of 200 refugee children were enrolled in our daycare centers.
The Warsaw daycare centers are a natural extension of the interventions that the foundation launched in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine: friendly spaces at reception points, educational points, and daycare centers at accommodation centers for people from Ukraine. From March 2022 to the end of 2023, several thousand children fleeing the war have visited them.
For more than 10 years, the foundation also ran a multicultural daycare center in Łomża, which provided integration and educational support to children with migration and refugee experience, mainly from Chechnya, Ukraine and Belarus. The daycare center closed in September 2023 due to lack of funding.
Watch a video recorded in one of Warsaw's community centers!
Other forms of children’s support
Since 2024, the foundation has provided school kits to children and young people from our regular programs in September, and Christmas gifts in December. In addition to the educational programs dedicated to them, young people also receive in-kind assistance, have access to psychological and psychiatric consultations, participate in the integration and housing program Welcome Home, and receive medical, material and legal assistance at the Polish-Belarusian border.
ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN ARE SUPPORTED BY
