HOW WE HELPED: CASH ASSISTANCE

Cash assistance remains a key way to help new arrivals meet their immediate needs and to support existing refugees to manage their ongoing needs. During the reporting period, DEC member charities and their partner organisations provided multi-purpose cash assistance to 12,700 people in Poland. Cash can be used to pay for food and other immediate priorities, to meet accommodation costs, or for warm clothes, bedding and heating bills during the winter months.

To ensure assistance was reaching people most in need, one member charity identified recipients through referrals from its mental health and psychosocial support team, thus providing holistic support – both basic needs and mental health support – to some of the most vulnerable people. Another member charity drew on its strong partnership agreements with local organisations to reach and provide support to marginalised and excluded refugee groups such as Roma, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, and older people. The charity also successfully piloted a Cash for Specialised Needs programme that uses a group cash transfer approach to provide funds to local groups that are best placed to channel support to people most in need in their community.

During the reporting period, member charities and their partners were increasingly building on their cash assistance programmes to focus on supporting refugees to integrate longer-term into the local community in Poland. One member charity combined cash assistance and multi-service livelihood support (information and legal assistance on employment rights and opportunities, vocational training and employability skills), while another member charity and its partner organisations provided additional support with finding accommodation and jobs, language lessons, psychosocial support, and access to counselling services and legal advice, employment rights and opportunities, vocational training and employability skills), while another member charity and its partner organisations provided additional support with finding accommodation and jobs, language lessons, psychosocial support, and access to counselling services and legal advice.

Supporting the people most in need

The most vulnerable people are targeted for assistance, including women and children, older people, and people with disabilities or chronic illnesses. Oleksandr, age 60, who fled Ukraine in March 2022 and is staying in a three-room flat with his wife and two other families in Krakow (southern Poland), said:

12,700 people received multi-purpose cash assistance