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 day care 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.
Day care centers
In Warsaw, we currently run two day care centers for foreign children. One is located on-site at MAL (Place of Local Activity) and is open to all children with migration and refugee experience. The other operates at the refugee accommodation center in the Wola district and is attended by children from Ukraine. In 2024, a total of 151 children were enrolled in the Warsaw day care centers.
In February 2025, we opened a day care center in Łódź, which is attended by nearly 30 children with migration experience, mainly from Ukraine. The day care center’s operations are possible thanks to funding from strategic partners IKEA and Port Łódź.
At the day care centers, children receive daily support and care. Our main goal is to support them in the educational process — they learn Polish with us, prepare for school, and receive individual tutoring if needed. They also have access to psychological assistance, and participate in trips to cultural institutions and developmental activities.
The Warsaw day care centers are a natural extension of the intervention actions the Foundation launched in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine: friendly spaces at reception points and day care centers at accommodation centers for people from Ukraine. Between March 2022 and the end of 2023, these centers provided support to over ten thousand children fleeing the war.
For over 10 years, the Foundation also ran a multicultural day care center in Łomża, which provided integration and educational support to children with migration and refugee experience, mainly from Chechnya, Ukraine, and Belarus. The day care center was closed in mid-2024 due to a lack of funding.
Watch a video recorded in one of Warsaw's community centers!
Other forms of children’s support
In September, we provide children from our regular programs with school supplies, and in December, with holiday gifts. In addition to the educational programs dedicated to them, young people also receive material aid, have access to psychological and psychiatric consultations, participate in the Welcome Home residential integration program, and receive medical, material, and legal assistance at the Polish-Belarusian border.
ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN ARE SUPPORTED BY
