Palacký University is organising and coordinating aid and support for students and employees from Ukraine who are finding themselves in difficult 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 list is not complete; activities are increasing daily.
– The UP Volunteering Centre currently has 672 registered volunteers. They continue to take an active part in the operations of the Regional Assistance Centre to Aid Ukraine (Krajské asistenční centrum pomoci Ukrajině: KACPU), where eight interpreters work dayshifts, plus four assistants, and one volunteer for crisis intervention. One interpreter works the nightshift and there is also a 24-hr telephone hotline.
– Almost three dozen elementary and middle schools in the Olomouc region have expressed interest in volunteer training sessions, which should help with adaptation groups where there are Ukrainian children. The Volunteering Centre is recruiting volunteers and training them.
– Dentistry students at the UP Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and employees of the Dental Clinic at University Hospital Olomouc have donated four full boxes of toothbrushes, toothpaste, and other hygienic necessities for refugees at KACPU.
– AC BALUO has refugee children in mind. In conjunction with the child care service Svišti v pohybu, it is offering Ukrainian children aged 5 to 12 regular physical education classes. The programme will take place every Thursday from 2 to 3 pm and will last until June. Details are available here.
– The Volunteering Centre is looking for volunteers for University Hospital Olomouc, where there is a need for help with Covid-positive Ukrainian patients and their relatives. VC is asking vaccinated students of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine & Dentistry for help.
– Ukrainian families who have fled the Russian aggression to Olomouc can take a breather from the suffering caused by war thanks to a solidarity organisation which has prepared offers of free-time activities. Information on the programme is now available via an online database on the Fort Science website. The UP Faculty of Science popular science centre is also preparing the Yarmarok Myru event which will take place on 3 April starting at 9 am in Laudon Hall. We have written about this here (in Czech).
– The Volunteering Centre contact point in the Armoury/Zbrojnice and the telephone hotline for university students and academics from Ukraine remain in operation.
– Thirty-one refugees are currently residing at UP dormitories, of whom 14 are students accepted for studies, 7 are academics hired by UP, and the others are relatives of students or other employees. The majority are paying for their accommodations from monies given to them.
– The Volunteering Centre is accepting material goods for its partner, Chernivtsi National University. We have written about that in more detail here.