We firmly oppose the spread of false information related to the activities of the Open Dialogue Foundation for Ukraine. These allegations have been spread in recent weeks by one of our former colleagues, who ended his cooperation with the Foundation at the end of June this year. Unfortunately, we are unable to respond to them directly due to having been blocked from his social media profiles.
Since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we have been engaged in providing assistance to two groups of beneficiaries: Ukrainian military and refugees residing in Poland. For us, this is a natural continuation of what we were doing in 2014–16, i.e. during the first period of the war.
One of the flagship areas of our activities has become the relocation of refugees through the Foundation’s assistance centre operating at the Eastern Railway Station in Warsaw (which is also part of the infrastructure of the reception point managed by the Polish Centre for International Aid, thanks to funding from the Norway Refugee Council). This assistance centre was set up in March by our team member Dominik Berlinski.
Since February this year, we have helped more than 10 600 refugees, relocating 2 691 of them abroad, accommodating 6 500 in Poland, temporarily providing food for about 315 people and offering dozens of advisory services every day. According to our statistics, currently 48% of refugees choose to go abroad, 48% remain in Poland and about 4% return to Ukraine. Three Homes for Independent Mums are home to 40 residents (we are about to open a fourth). The Foundation’s team currently consists of 35 people.
In addition to relocation, thanks to our donors and partners, we provide temporary accommodation on a large scale for refugees waiting to go abroad or building a new life in our country. To some extent, we also provide their meals. In addition, we provide assistance with a wide range of cultural needs – helping with everyday problems. These activities are supported, among others, by a team of helpline workers, drivers and psychologists coordinated by our colleague Dominika Przychodzeń.
The whole thing would not have been possible without the involvement of hundreds of volunteers, many of whom subsequently became permanent staff members of the Foundation. It is not true that the Fundacja Asymetryści (FA) headed by Kajetan Wroblewski is the only relocation point at Eastern Railway Station. An alternative relocation point run by the Asymetryści was opened in July this year following the departure of Kajetan and a group of volunteers. Since then, we have supported their activities on more than one occasion – from engaging our drivers to relocating FA wards abroad. However, we could not count on reciprocity, and a symbolic expression of the FA’s attitude towards us was an FA activist wearing an ODF volunteer waistcoat … but with our organisation’s logo on the back having been cut out with scissors.
Our organisation’s reputation is damaged by the allegation, which has been made public on several occasions, that the Foundation deliberately rents temporary accommodation to refugees on the basis of price criteria only, thus placing them in poor conditions.
In fact, our staff negotiate the rent price in cooperation with a foreign partner, aiming to provide temporary accommodation of a tourist standard to as many people in need as possible. This is because our resources are limited and the need is great. We have to use our resources rationally, which is what our partners expect of us.
The Foundation provides its wards with support in their socio-cultural integration in Poland — from medical and psychological care to support in finding employment, long-term housing, and in dealing with official matters. Depending on current possibilities, we also help with food and the purchase of medicines.
Kajetan played an important role in these activities (until 29.06 this year) — as one of the coordinators at Eastern Railway Station. It is not true that the Management Board of the Foundation decided to terminate cooperation with him — it was Kajetan’s decision to leave (the background to which were difficulties and misunderstandings in the team). It is not true that the Foundation has not paid any of its staff or refused to reimburse any of its staff or volunteers for costs incurred in relation to its work for refugees. We also deny the information that the dismissal of one of the staff members at Eastern Railway Station was related to his “friendship with Kajetan” — the real reason was disloyalty and the undertaking of repeated covert attempts to circumvent the developed rules.
We express our sadness and regret at the publicly formulated, unfair and unsubstantiated allegations against our organisation, as well as individual members of our Team, with whom we remain in complete solidarity. Personal animosities and difficult life situations cannot be an excuse for such absurd attacks.
We still want to believe that any misunderstandings can be resolved through direct conversation, and that the main goal for all of us remains to help refugees efficiently.
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