Currently, there are over 3.6 million Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Some have returned to Ukraine but many have decided to stay in Poland and right now the biggest need is housing. Many Poles and cities have opened up their homes for refugees, however as people and resources are being stretched to their limits, there are still many refugees looking for a place to stay.

 

My name is Vera Ivakina and I live in Świdnica, Poland with my husband Konrad Jacek. We have been working with our town and church, Świdnica dla Jezusa, to help house Ukrainian refugees. Even though we are in Western Poland, there are over 3000 refugees in our small town and over 20 000 in our region.

 

Over the last three months we have been able to house 20-25 refugees at a time in our church’s hostel and at the beginning of May we signed a 6 month lease for a 7 bedroom house for 15-18 people. We have been fundraising to help with housing costs, rent deposits, food expenses, medicine, transportation and other supplies for people staying with us and other families in our town and region.

 

Our hope is to provide temporary housing for refugees as they settle in Poland. The funds collected will go towards paying for church hostel rooms, rent/utilities for the house and food expenses.

 

We want to keep supporting families as they find work and more stable housing, so we will be using some of the funds to help pay first month's rent and deposits on new leases for families who have work and are able to live independently. Many of the refugees have skills but work is becoming more and more difficult to find, so we will be using part of the funds to help start a small online sewing business with some of the women from Ukraine. We will also use some of the funds to continue to provide Polish language classes and help with documents for newcomers.

 

Please let us know if you would like to receive monthly updates about the work being done!

 

Thank you for your partnership and support.

 

Vera & Konrad

Świdnica dla Jezusa