The Polish-Ukrainian Sisterhood is a coalition of women from Poland and Ukraine, which was established as a gesture of solidarity with Ukrainian women fleeing the war. In recent weeks, the Sisterhood has focused on the evaluation of projects that applied for funding from the First Edition of the "Hi Girls!" Grant Program. The best of them could count on grants ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 PLN.
- We received 450 completed applications. It is a proof for us how great the needs related to helping girls from Ukraine are. We chose the best of the projects, guided by their high quality. High interest motivates us to further fundraising and launch the next edition of the Program. We set in motion a mechanism that will permanently change the lives of people who escaped the war - says Dominika Kulczyk, President of the Kulczyk Foundation.
The Sisterhood decided to award grants to 11 organisations helping Ukrainian women and their families.
The "First Ukrainian School in Poland" project, submitted by the Unbreakable Ukraine Foundation, scored the highest number of points in the voting. The organization will receive 100,000 PLN in funding for its implementation. The same amount can be counted on by the Educational Center Children of Ukraine Foundation, whose project "Ukrainian Summer in Warsaw" took second place in the vote. The University Children's Hospital in Krakow and the "Support for patients and their carers", planned under the grant, was also on the podium with a grant of 100,000 PLN.
The full list of awarded projects is published on the website www.czescdziewczyny.pl
- Projects that have received funding meet almost all the criteria we take into account. What they have in common is their long-term nature - the durability of the social infrastructure that we want to create by offering them grants. The organisations that submitted the winning projects are scattered all over Poland - from Suwałki, through Hrubieszów, to Bielsko-Biała. Each of these places will receive real support from us aimed at Girls from Ukraine - says Myroslava Keryk, President of the "Our Choice" Foundation.
The total amount of grants awarded in the First Edition of the Program is over 950,000 PLN.
There was almost 1.5 million PLN in the grant pool, but the Sisterhood decided that the 11 best projects would receive funding, guided by their high quality. The funds remaining in the Fund will be allocated to the next edition of the Grant Program. Its launch is already planned.
The Grant Program is funded by funds collected on the Support Fund for Women and Girls from Ukraine “Hi Girls!”. One million PLN for the Fund was allocated by Dominika Kulczyk, President of the Kulczyk Foundation. Money for long-term help for women from Ukraine is collected on the Foundation's accounts and through the Patronite portal: https://patronite.pl/czescdziewczyny
The most important criteria taken into account when awarding grants are:
- Support for family relationships.
- Psychological support.
- Support for social adaptation in the new reality.
- Creation of new jobs.
- Activation of women and the elderly.
- Support for humanitarian channels.
- Support for education and scientific initiatives.
- Support for cultural initiatives, especially in the local dimension.
- Business activation of Polish-Ukrainian relations.
- Sustainability of the proposed social infrastructure.
The first edition of the "Hi Girls!" Grant Program was created as a response to the needs of women and children who were forced to flee war-affected Ukraine. Grants are to go to social initiatives that will help improve their situation. The aim of the program is to support local projects that will help them create a second home in Poland.
