ADOPT A FAMILY Zaadoptuj

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Concept paper prepared by Aldona Olchanowska and Alistair Blunt

Background
A recent poll by Gazeta Wyborcza, found that 53% of Poles believed that
Poland should welcome refugees from the Middle East and Africa fleeing
persecution. Poland presently has proportionately the lowest number of
immigrants (0.3% of population), lower even that Romania (0.7%) and Bulgaria
(0.8%) than any other EU country. This compares with Austria (12.4%), Spain
(10.1%), Germany (8.7%) and Britain (7.8%) to name a few other countries.
Illegal immigration is also low compared to other countries with a mere 717
estimated to have come last year into Poland compared 200 thousand going to
Greece and 140 thousand to Germany via Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Despite claims otherwise, it appears that the influx of Ukrainian refugees has
been very small despite the war in that country. We believe that many Poles
and the international community living in Poland would like to do more and to
provide practical assistance to these unfortunate families. Poland is scheduled
to take 10,000 people in the next five years. While this is small compared to
the expected influx of two million people who are on the move from areas of
conflict, it is a start. Most of those coming under this scheme are families that
have been directly affected by the conflict and so come with a number of
problems. We understand that while the Government is able to provide them
with shelter, food and clothing, and will help them with transport costs and
offer them citizenship, these refugees come with many problems that the
State will not be able to meet. Our proposal is a way we, as a community can
help.

Goal
The goal of the program is to ensure that each immigrant family arriving in
Poland is adopted by a local resident family.

The aim of the programme is to help the refugees settle in the country and to
feel welcome and part of the wider Polish community. We can do this by
befriending the refugees, helping them sort out their problems with the
bureaucracy, help with language, ensuring they have the basic necessities of
family life and helping them celebrate their important religious festivals and to
enjoy ours. In other words we want the refugees to feel they are cared for by
Polish society.
We believe that such a program will benefit both parties and the Country as a
whole. The sooner the refugees understand the culture of the host country
and can speak the language, the more accepted they will be and the easier it
will be for the host communities where they live to accept them. Secondly, the
sooner they can be integrated into Polish society, the sooner they can become
self-supporting and stop being a burden on society (as they are often seen to
be). However, we also recognise that they will want to keep their own
traditions and be able to practice their own religions and to be accepted by the
host country when they do so, so the involvement of a large number of Polish
families in the proposed project/scheme, will provide the host families with a
better understanding of the culture of the new communities. We would hope,
therefore, that this program will foster a better understanding of other
cultures and facilitate tolerance.
It should also be noted that one reason that Germany believes it can support
up to half a million refugees a year is that they have a shortage of young
people who are needed to supply the labour market and support the welfare
system. The same may be said of Poland, especially with the loss of so many
younger people to other more affluent parts of Europe.

Contents of the Programme

The programme will require the host families to make a commitment of two
years. We shall need to know who the host families are and what sort of
families they are looking to help, so that they can be matched if possible. To
do this we will need to find volunteers to do the paper work, to gather the
responses of the host families and to deal with the government agencies who
are processing the new arrivals. (It should be noted that the vast majority -60%
of so, are men, with less than 40% women and children, as it appears that the

present first wave of migrants tends to be the men, who leave their families in
Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon for example, while they try and get themselves
established in the new country, so the volunteers will have to establish
whether the new arrivals are expecting their families to follow.)
The volunteers will also monitor the host families and identify the needs of
the new arrivals and the host families befriending them.
We shall need a web page and a facebook page giving information about the
program, contact addresses and ways people who may not be able to commit
two years to the scheme, to give other forms of help. The pages can identify
what the new refugee families need. The facebook page would allow us to
provide PR about the program and give a forum for the exchange of ideas. We
would also hopefully be able to find through the web page and facebook
account companies and individuals who may be able to provide help financially
or in services or in materials.
The programme should develop a list of counsellors, therapists and
psychologists who can offer help with those suffering from Post Traumatic
Stress Disorders (PTSD), loss and bereavements. Further we need a database of
people willing to provide language training to children in schools and adults
who wish to attend further training or education in Poland. In some of this
work we need to work with existing NGOs, both in this country and other parts
of the EU to help the refugees who wish to move to other EU countries to do
so.

What we need to start

We need the following:
An action plan
Volunteers to process applications and host families
A facebook address and a web page, with someone to design both, also
an e-mail address.
Advertisements in publications, through radio and TV programmes
(maybe some appearances on these programmes by the organizers)
Well prepared questionnaires for the volunteers and for the host
families

 A form of contract to be signed by Volunteers, another for the host

families and one for the refugee families, agreeing to their roles and
conditions
A system of monitoring the programme and how it is working and to
identify problems and issues
Procedures what to do if things go wrong (either because one of the
parties breaks their contract or abuses the agreement)
Registration of the voluntary organisation with the Polish authorities
Other Activities?
Draft Proposal prepared 9 September 2015