JCC Krakow in Poland Mobilizes to Aid Ukrainian Refugees Forced From Homes by Russian Invasion

Over the past two weeks, amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Jewish Community Center of Krakow in Poland has provided aid to 5,000 Ukrainian refugees who fled the fighting.

The JCC building has been transformed into a supply distribution center where food, medicine, hygienic supplies, toys, and clothing are available seven days a week, and tons of materials have also been sent to the border and inside Ukraine.

Furthermore, refugees are being assisted by Ukrainian speakers and provided with social services and transportation.

More than 170 refugees are being directly housed and fed by JCC Krakow, with the number rising every day.

JCC Krakow also worked with a local partner to outfit and open and mother and child safe space that provides daycare for young children, and Polish and English classes, psychological counseling, and job training for their mothers. And two Ukrainian girls have enrolled in JCC Krakow’s Frajda preschool so far.

A total of 10 new fulltime staff members — including four Ukrainians — have been hired to handle these new missions.

More than two million Ukrainians have left the country since the war began, with 1.5 million arriving in neighboring Poland.

“Each day the refugees who arrive in Krakow require more and more support,” JCC Krakow said. “They are coming from war-torn cities and small, impoverished villages scattered across the Ukrainian countryside. JCC Krakow is working around the clock to welcome these refugees to our city and help them feel some sense of normalcy and security.”

To learn how you can support JCC Krakow’s efforts to help Ukrainian refugees, please visit: friendsofjcckrakow.org/ukraine

For more information on JCC Krakow, please visit: friendsofjcckrakow.org

Or follow JCC Krakow at: facebook.com/jcckrakow