Holidays that integrate!

About the project

Thanks to the financial support of the City of Krakow, our Foundation girls and migrant volunteers, we were able to prepare St. Nicholas Day and Christmas Eve Dinner along with workshops for refugee, migrant and Polish families.

The venue for the events was the Ukrainian restaurant Ciepło in Krakow, founded by the Zero Camps Foundation, which has been providing shelter for about 130 people in its centers since the beginning of the war. They opened it for the residents of the hostels they run, to provide them with jobs and create a space for meetings and promotion of Ukrainian culture. By organizing events in “Ciepla”, we wanted to support them by showing that Krakow is a place created and run by refugees, where you can meet, organize integration events and try the delicacies of Ukrainian cuisine.

As part of the project, 2 events were held, which were very popular: St. Nicholas Day Polish St. Nicholas Day” and Christmas Eve Dinner “Let’s celebrate Christmas Together!”. The Foundation’s priority is to integrate and reach as many families in need of support as possible. Therefore, we tried to encourage as many families as possible to participate in the events – refugees, migrants and Polish families. The number of interested parties exceeded our expectations. All comers arrived despite the raging snowstorm. About 100 people took part in the project events.

Both events turned out to be a bull’s eye. There was a lot of delicious food, prepared with heart by the girls from Ciepla. Art and dumpling workshops were very popular among the youngest. The stay of all participants was made more pleasant by our volunteers, who played a Christmas concert on accordions and a crazy Santa Claus from Mexico giving gifts to all the children.

Thanks to Dominika Stanek’s photos from our foundation, you can feel the atmosphere of these events. Ania’s mom takes photos | Facebook