Tomorrow will be my last day of volunteering at the Ocalenie Foundation safe space for children in the Ukrainian Refugee Humanitarian Aid Center in Przemyśl, Poland, at least for the rest of October. The Polish Red Cross had initially announced that it intended to close the Aid Center at the end of October, so Ocalenie had arranged for plenty of volunteers through the end of the month. But just a few days ago the Polish Red Cross announced that it will keep the Aid Center open until at least April of next year. In response to that announcement, I understand Ocalenie Foundation is currently discussing with the Save the Children International (it’s principal grant funder for this project) prospects to keep the children’s safe space funded and operational into April.
Based on my impression after volunteering for over a month in the Aid Center, I believe the safe space for children is one of the key services provided at the Aid Center. It not only provides harried parents (many of who are mothers travelling without their husbands) not only a chance to focus on planning the next legs of their journeys, but maybe also a chance for some personal time, to take a shower and perhaps just relax for a while. But even more important, it gives the kids a carefree time and place to really release a lot of nervous energy. In my view, the more stimulated, excited and hyperactive the kids are while they are with us, the sounder they will sleep during their nighttime trainride to Germany, or wherever they are headed, and the calmer they will feel with they wake up. Also, from the perspective of the Red Cross, the children’s safe space assures that kids won’t be getting into mischief or causing chaos in the hallways and other functional spaces of the Aid Center.
Because the children’s safe space does provide such important services at the Aid Center, I really hope Save the Children International extends it’s grant to keep the safe space open until next spring. For any American readers of this post who are Save the Children donors, I encourage you to reach out to your closest contact at Save the Children to encourge them to continue funding the safe space. For those of you who are not already Save the Children supporters, I encourage you to make a donation. I can attest from my experience here that Save the Children International is funding important humanitarian aid that directly benefits children.
Meanwhile, I plan to spend the next three weeks travelling and visiting some places in Eastern Europe. After that, if the Ocalenie Foundation / Save the Children safe space for children is still operating, I will volunteer to come back in November to do another stint with the kids.