Club of Catholic Intelligentsia and Ukraine
Club of Catholic Intelligentsia is an organisation founded in 1956. It gathers around 2000 members whose objective is to serve the common good. KIK’s initiatives, apart from intellectual and spiritual formation, are pursued in 4 main areas: Humanitarian and development aid and other aid activities (projects funded by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs or by American USAID carried out in Syria, Iraq and Ukraine; humanitarian aid at the Polish-Belarusian border); Education and upbringing (leading peer groups based on scouting-like rules for over 700 children and teenagers); Social initiatives in Poland (cooperation with minorities in Poland, creation of the support helpline for people abused in Church - the first such initiative in Poland); Development of the civil society in Eastern Europe (support for independent school system in Belarus, care for the children affected by the conflict in the East of Ukraine).
KIK’s engagement in helping Ukraine
Since 2014 KIK has been particularly involved in helping the Ukrainian society. During the so-called Dignity Revolution (2014) KIK delivered specialist equipment for field hospitals, personal protective equipment and financial support, as well as the support for the injured who were transported to Polish hospitals. For 8 years KIK has been regularly organising therapeutic and recreation camps for children from the families who suffered from the war in Eastern Ukraine. Several hundred children and teenagers have benefited. KIK has also been leading the projects supporting young Ukrainian artists, organised specialist workshops for educators working with refugee families in Ukraine. Ukrainian hospitals were equipped, and the doctors were trained also on the KIK’s initiative. Thanks to all those activities KIK has a broad base of verified partners in the territory of Ukraine in the fields of education, culture and empowering the civil society.
We have been cooperating with Ukrainian Ministry of National Defence, local governments and hospitals’ management representatives. The members of KIK were frequently awarded for their involvement by the representatives of Ukraine’s and Poland’s authorities.
Support after the outbreak of war in Ukraine
We have broad experience in managing targeted aid activities that are address verified needs. We have at our disposal all the contacts, motivated volunteers and Polish and foreign partners, who are well-experienced in multiple fields. Thus, we have been able to help from the very beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Our efforts focus on the particular fields that at the present time seem most important to us. At the beginning it was support in evacuation from the war-affected areas, humanitarian aid and providing basic needs of refugees. Currently we are focusing on the aspects that we consider exceptionally important for the future of Ukraine, such as:
- providing education and care for children and teenagers
- assisting children going through the trauma of a loss of a parent
- organising leisure activities for children and teenagers
- helping domestic refugees in Ukraine in cooperation with Ukrainian organisations - BUR and the foundation "Chance for a new life."
Help needed
Each of our aid initiatives needs funding.
- Ukrainian school in Warsaw: teachers' employment, purchase of teaching aids, textbooks - printing or purchase, maintenance of the school building.
- Camps, trips, integration and recreation for children and youth: transport, meals, tutors, psychological care, workshops and rental of sports equipment.
- Training: integration and training trips for young leaders from Poland and Ukraine, coaching for Ukrainian psychologists, training of the staff and volunteers working with children.
- Humanitarian aid in Ukraine power generators, medical supplies, purchase of specialised equipment, transport.
