Crisis Zones, a new Human Rights subsection, is a collaborative project by Harbingers’ writers Helena Bruździak and Kexin Shi, launched in March 2025.

Thirty lively kids between the ages of four and ten shout and run through the halls while a group of volunteers, including me, try to make their days a little brighter. We entertain them with DIY projects, such as making bracelets, while the video game Just Dance plays in the background.

Some kids ask us to play card games such as UNO or Exploding Kittens. In another room, teenagers have 120 computer stations at their disposal. There’s also a colourful ball pit, a Barbie doll’s house, a tiny play kitchen and many, many toys.

Since October 2024, I’ve joined a group of volunteers at the Education and Development Centre in Warsaw, a space that provides different activities for Ukrainian refugee children after school during the week and during the day at weekends, while their parents are busy.

The centre is supported by UNICEF, Polish banking group Alior, and the City of Warsaw. It opened in June 2022, soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Such initiatives provide a familiar environment in which children receive help with school by the centre’s Ukrainian workers, while gradually integrating into Polish culture.

A total of 100,000 refugee children and teens have attended the centre since it opened, Agata Gos, the centre’s director, told Harbingers’ Magazine. However, in July it will be closing its doors.

Refugees, with support from the Polish government, have had time to acclimatise, reducing the need for the centre, and the funding has been reduced. This news is sad, although, according to Gos, “UNICEF always emphasised that it was not forever.”

According to the latest data from UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, 993,674 Ukrainian refugees were registered in Poland as of 7 April 2025, which essentially gives them the right to stay in the country.

At the start of 2024, Poland extended its Family 800 Plus programme to include Ukrainian families too. This provides 800 Polish zloty (approximately $215) per child each month.

“Last year, we had the second birthday party. This year, we will have the third birthday party, and then we will close the centre. But it had to happen at some point and there is no good time to close such a facility,” Gos said.

At the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the centre was very busy. “Crowds really started to come to us and this place started to live, simply to be full of life and we could barely manage with the staff to meet all the needs, even though we had a lot at that time,” Gos said. “We had nine psychologists at one point, and they worked six days a week.”

Gos said that, at its busiest, the centre provided all sorts of activities, including soda volcanoes, photography sessions, painting workshops and slime making. She said the children’s favourite activities at the moment are cooking classes, making toasts and pancakes.

Funding cuts means the centre has undergone changes as it awaits its end. There are fewer activities and less psychological support.

Acceptance and kindness

According to Gos, the most important part of the centre’s work has been the mental health support provided by psychologists to young children and teens.

“Everyone has lost a friend, a mother, a father, a brother, a grandmother, a grandfather, an aunt. These are things that these people are constantly dealing with every day,” she said.

The trauma of war is psychological and dealing with mental health issues in the way the centre does, by providing psychological assistance and a sense of community, is crucial to help refugees integrate and find their own communities within the new places they live. This is especially important for children, who need friends and support.

Gos stresses that for young refugees, being welcomed into peer groups, treated with kindness, and simply being seen can make all the difference.

“Those who are really in need and have some problems, they are ashamed to ask for help,” she adds. “Being attentive and treating people with respect and kindness, even just treating them normally, can make all the difference.”