When a bomb fell on the building next to Rozalia’s home in the northern city of Chernihiv, she knew she only had a brief window of opportunity to get out with her two-year-old son, Andre.
Rozalia grabbed the bag she had packed earlier and fled the city. A priest drove her and Andre to Kyiv, where they crammed onto a train headed to the Polish border. The journey took three days, but Rozalia deflects any suggestion it was an ordeal.
“It wasn’t about the difficulties of the journey,” she says. “It was about finding a safe place for my son.”
Rozalia and Andre are among the 5.2 million people who have fled Ukraine since the outbreak of the war. Among these, 2.8 million have found safety in Poland.
Rozalia and her son have a roof over their heads in Warsaw thanks to a Polish journalist who offered them his spare room. However, they need cash to survive.
“Our fridge is empty, so we need to buy food,” Rozalia says. “Some people have tried to give us food, but I feel ashamed. I want to buy it myself.”
While refugees from Ukraine can access social services and employment in Poland, there are delays due to the sheer volume of people seeking help. UNHCR’s cash assistance program fills the gap for refugees like Rozalia while they wait for social security.
“The program is designed to target the most vulnerable families coming in the country…it’s an efficient way of providing assistance, at scale, to populations in need,” says Andrew Hopkins, UNHCR Chief of Digital Identity and Registration.
UNHCR is scaling up its cash assistance program in Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia. But as the numbers of displaced people grow by the day, we urgently need your support. Your gift will ensure vulnerable families like Rozalia’s can buy food, medicine and other essentials.
