Palacký University is organising and coordinating aid and support for students and employees from Ukraine who are finding themselves in existential situations due to the war. At the same time, UP is working with the Regional Assistance Centre to Aid Ukraine. Here, we bring you up-to-date information on the ongoing situation.
– The UP Volunteering Centre is still actively engaged at the Regional Assistance Centre to Aid Ukraine (Krajské asistenční centrum pomoci Ukrajině: KACPU), and is concurrently running a contact point in the Armoury/Zbrojnice and telephone hot lines for students and academics from Ukraine. Our volunteers have already logged in over 7000 hours.
– UP is currently operating under the “Lex Ukrajina” which went into effect in Czechia on 21 March. UP is preparing conditions so that Ukrainian students can attend regular classes.
– The university has announced a financial collection to support foreign students and workers at UP who have been affected by the results of the war in Ukraine.
– The Faculty of Education, in cooperation with the UP Volunteering Centre, is preparing a programme of one-day adaptation groups for elementary schools and afterschool organisations to help Ukrainian children. At the same time, it is also organising entry training for volunteers so that they be better prepared to communicate with children traumatised by the war; in addition, schools have been contacted to ask what kind of help they might need.
– Academia Film Olomouc organisers have accepted three Ukrainian students as interns.
– The UP Faculty of Arts has already launched several courses, incl. English for teenaged refugees aged 15–18, German for refugees, Czech language courses intended primarily for refugees, and a course called Survival Ukrainian for UP students and employees.
– The Faculty of Law has accepted its first short-term resident student in connection with the Russian invasion from Ukraine. We have written about Anhelina Diriavko in more detail here.
– Interested refugees can now register for qualification courses in Czech in order to enter the labour market. The courses are run by the UP Faculty of Arts.
– UP faculties are thinking about free time and cultural opportunities for refugees: at the Faculty of Arts for example a film club has already been launched featuring family films in Ukrainian; it has also come up with an initiative to provide guide services in the Olomouc town centre in Ukrainian and Russian. The Faculty of Education is preparing afterschool activities for Ukrainian children, and fixing up a space in the building’s basement; it is also considering hosting summer camps, offering language courses for children and adults alike, and is completing several teaching materials for teachers and children.
– The Armoury Library is making available forty books in Ukrainian which it has bought to lend to those fleeing the war. Titles include literature, fairy tales, even Harry Potter. Interested persons can contact KACPU for more information. Details are available here (in Czech).