Help Center for Foreigners
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What is the Help Center?
The Help Center for Foreigners in Warsaw (Centrum Pomocy Cudzoziemcom, CPC) is a place where migrants, including refugees, receive free support in building a good life in Poland. It is also the Ocalenie Foundation’s answer to the lack of a coherent integration policy, without which it is difficult for newcomers to take their first steps here: learn Polish, adapt to the job market, rent an apartment, find a suitable school for their child, or get help in a crisis in their own language. The center has been operating in Warsaw since 2004, and ALL foreigners with migration and refugee experience can benefit from its support.
How does the Help Center work?
At the Help Center, we:
- Help with day-to-day matters — supporting clients with contacts with authorities, finding rooms and apartments for rent, enrolling children in preschools and schools, filling out applications and preparing letters,
- Provide interpreters in contacts with offices, schools, hospitals,
- Help with writing résumés and looking for jobs,
- Provide legal consultations — we assist clients in legalization of their residence and work in Poland, refugee and consular proceedings, applying for social benefits, as well as cases involving civil law, labor law and criminal law,
- Offer psychological and psychiatric support and psychotherapy for adults and children, including those with trauma and post-traumatic stress syndrome, as well as specialized assistance to victims of torture,
- Provide free Polish courses for adults,
- Provide emergency support (accommodation, food, clothing, medicine),
- Organize integration and cultural events for Warsaw residents — both Poles and foreigners.
We cooperate with Warsaw social welfare institutions, other NGOs, informal groups and institutions involved in helping and supporting the integration of foreigners in Warsaw.
Until June 2025, Magazin, one of the first cashless shops in Poland, operated at the Help Center for Foreigners in Warsaw. Foreigners in difficult situations could receive basic necessities there, such as cosmetics, household cleaning products, school supplies, and clothes. Magazin was closed due to a lack of further funding. Over 6 years of its operation, approximately 6,000 people benefited from in-kind support.
See how CPC works
Stories from the Help Center
The Help Center for Foreigners is a place where clients are helped on many levels and on a long-term basis. From their sometimes difficult beginnings in Poland, until they build a good, safe life here. The stories we encounter are often complicated and challenging. This makes us all the more pleased with the happy endings, which fortunately often happen.
Mohamed’s story
We met Mohamed from Sudan in the forest near the Polish-Belarusian border in April 2022. For several days we brought him food, warm clothes, a tent, and water, and bandaged his injured feet.
Matvii’s story
Matvii’s mother was unable to enroll him in school. Thanks to the tenacity of Iryna, a cultural mentor from the Help Center for Foreigners, the boy is now a satisfied student.
The story of a Congolese refugee
Despite experiencing violence, she ended up in a closed center for foreigners. Our legal team helped her receive protection in Poland.
HELP CENTER OPERATIONS ARE SUPPORTED BY
