UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Priyanka Chopra Jonas travelled to Poland last August to meet refugee children and families who fled the war in Ukraine.
Chopra Jonas visited a “Blue Dot” space at the Refugee Accommodation Centre in Warsaw, meeting with mothers and children from Ukraine who are now staying at the centre, the largest in the country.
“All the children I met ache to be home,” said Chopra Jonas. “The invisible wounds of war are often the least talked about but the most devastating for a child. It was incredibly heartening to see UNICEF's quick response and their work in partnership with the Polish people and government to provide children and their families with a sense of safety, catch up learning, awareness of their rights, and mental health support. All children everywhere have the right to this kind of help, no matter who they are or where they’re from.”
Over two days, Chopra Jonas visited several programmes of UNICEF’s new response office in Poland, set up in the wake of the Ukraine war. She spent time at a UNICEF-supported Education Hub, which, in partnership with the Warsaw Municipality, is supporting Ukrainian children with catch-up learning, language classes, soft skills and other activities ahead of the start of the new school year. At a ‘Spynka’ Early Childhood Development centre, which provides support and childcare provision for Ukrainian refugees, Chopra Jonas met younger children and mothers, hearing directly about the challenges facing families.
Nearly two-thirds of children are displaced either inside Ukraine or in neighbouring countries, with the largest number of these in Poland. Over 90 per cent are women and children.
"This is a women’s and children’s crisis,” said Chopra Jonas. “The women I met deeply touched and inspired me. Not only are they the mothers who had to flee war leaving their husbands and loved ones behind, they’re now the sole caregivers. They’re the psychologists helping children and soothing their nightmares of war. They’re the teachers. The volunteers at the Blue Dots. They are putting their own trauma aside, to nurture and protect children.”
Finally, at a summer camp, organized by a UNICEF partner organization, Chopra Jonas spent time with enrolled children between the ages of 5-16 as they did catch-up learning, educational games, skills development activities, Polish language classes, as well as outdoor sports activities.
