Poland remains the country with the highest number of refugees arriving from Ukraine, with over 2,5 million people have crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border. According to Warsaw’s mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, the city is one of the main communication hubs for Ukrainians, with over 320 000 people reaching Warsaw since the start of the war. Trzaskowski also claims that the capital now serves as a new home to over 200 000 thousand Ukrainians – over 10% of the city’s general population. An increase of that scale in such a short time poses obvious challenges in providing the refugees with basic necessities, especially clothing and housing. The situation is difficult in the whole country, but the main cities struggling are now Warsaw, Kraków, and Wrocław.
However, a huge problem the refugees are also facing is access to medical care, especially SRHR services. Foundation for Women and Family Planning FEDERA focuses on providing support to Ukrainians in need of sexual and reproductive. FEDERA has launched a gynecological hotline for the refugees seeking information about OB-GYN consults, prenatal testing, access to contraceptives, abortion and other SRHR-related issues. The hotline operates three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) between 5 PM and 9 PM at +48 573 186 625. It is extremely popular, with sometimes over 40 calls a day.
FEDERA has also translated brochures about SRHR services for refugees in Poland to Ukrainian, English, Belarusian, Russian, Tajik, and Arabic (updated versions to be uploaded soon).
As described by media outlets, Poland is also struggling with human traffickers targeting especially children and young women crossing the Polish border.
FEDERA plans to expand the scope of its services to include the psychological and legal support. Many thanks to the international partners and organisations for the support of our activities and coordination of activities provided by the women’s rights organisations.