28-03-2024 10:35
Tamara is from Kiev and Oksana from Odessa. They came to Bulgaria to rescue their children from the war. They need to find a kindergarten and school for them, they need health care and assistance to find a job. The two women are among 1,250 refugees from Ukraine supported by a project funded by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism and implemented by Caritas Sofia.
The focus is on vulnerable groups - women with children, the elderly, people with special needs, unaccompanied minors and large families. The project covers the cities of Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas. Within a year the organization has helped over 150 children to get into kindergarten or school. More than 260 people have received Bulgarian language lessons. Due to the high interest, additional, informal groups have been set up in Burgas where people can practice the language with volunteer philologists.
In general, more than 1300 services such as consultations, access to social, health or educational institutions have been provided within the project, it was revealed at the closing event.
But behind each of these figures lies a human story. Each of the attendees had to step into someone else's shoes to try to understand what challenges Ukrainian refugees face and what do they need.
