Untitled - Narodowe Centrum Kultury
Untitled - Narodowe Centrum Kultury
Untitled - Narodowe Centrum Kultury
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tytuł artykułu 43<br />
contributed as well, helping transport children<br />
to the workshops.<br />
target groups<br />
Brwinów is a small town 30 kilometres from<br />
Warsaw. The refugee centre is located in<br />
a nearby village, Moszna. All children from<br />
the centre – mostly Chechens – attend the<br />
same school in Brwinów. The aim of our project<br />
was to integrate the Polish and refugee<br />
children through art activities.<br />
Photo: Michal Benke (4)<br />
funding<br />
Our project was funded by the EU programme<br />
Youth in Action: Youth Initiatives.<br />
We worked closely with local institutions. We<br />
held our workshops in rooms offered to us<br />
free of charge by the Communal Family Help<br />
Centre (GOPzR), Friends of Brwinów Society,<br />
Cultural Centre and Voluntary Fire Brigade.<br />
The staff of GOPzR and the school<br />
psychologist helped recruit Polish children<br />
for the workshops. In addition, we collaborated<br />
with the local website brwinow24.pl,<br />
which helped promote our project. We also<br />
got support from the Communal Office and<br />
the mayor, the staff of the Moszna refugee<br />
centre and the Office for Foreigners.<br />
challenges<br />
The longer we ran the project, the better we<br />
understood how difficult the situation was<br />
and how much of a challenge it was to integrate<br />
the refugees with Brwinów’s Polish<br />
community.<br />
The biggest challenge was the attitude<br />
of the local school attended by the refugee<br />
children. Not only did it refuse to support our<br />
activities but also made it hard for us to do<br />
our work. Due to inadequate funding we had<br />
problems renting a bus to take the children<br />
from the centre and neighbouring villages to<br />
Brwinów. For a long time the school refused<br />
to help us, and the residents of the centre<br />
had to bring their children to the workshops<br />
The lesson we’ve learned from the project was that<br />
with smarts, determination and ingenuity you can<br />
overcome most hurdles. On the other hand, we’ve realised<br />
we cannot change certain things – sometimes much deeper<br />
changes are required than those we can make. Our advice<br />
to future culture animators is to be flexible and aware that<br />
the original plan will have to be modified anyway.<br />
at their own expense. Twice we had to cancel<br />
the workshops.<br />
The negative attitude of the school and<br />
its staff toward the refugees was one of the<br />
reasons why integration was slow and difficult.<br />
We learned to appreciate the smallest<br />
signs of integration. Besides, our participants<br />
were a difficult and demanding group<br />
and we had to learn how to work with them.<br />
We overcame the obstacles through determination,<br />
a belief in what we were doing, enthusiasm<br />
and ability to find unconventional<br />
solutions.<br />
Association for Legal<br />
Intervention (SIP)<br />
is a public benefit organisation working<br />
for those who are discriminated against<br />
or threatened with exclusion – mostly<br />
refugees, refugee applicants, prisoners<br />
and former prisoners. SIP provides<br />
legal advice and strives to represent its<br />
clients before government agencies. It<br />
also seeks to initiate changes in legislation<br />
and social policy. SIP volunteers<br />
accompany refugees as interpreters to<br />
appointments in hospitals and government<br />
agencies, and take part in integration<br />
projects for the benefit of refugee<br />
children.<br />
Association for Legal Intervention (Stowarzyszenie<br />
Interwencji Prawnej)<br />
Mazovia Province<br />
al. 3 Maja 12 lok. 510, 00-391 Warsaw<br />
interwencja@interwencjaprawna.pl<br />
www.interwencjaprawna.pl
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