Guest Editorial by Brian Branch, Former President and CEO, World Council of Credit Unions
Via Stella provides a pathway to safety for victims of the Russian Ukraine war.
It focuses on sustainability for refugees in Poland and medical needs for communities in Ukraine.
Via Stella is a Polish credit union foundation, established when Russia invaded Ukraine and large numbers of refugees came into Poland. While credit unions all over Poland responded with relief supplies, they looked for a longer-term strategic response for the economic sustainability of the refugees and the stability of the credit unions’ communities receiving them. In Ukraine, we have focused on providing medical support for civilian casualties of the war.
This is the Pathway to Safety theme of Via Stella: evacuation from harm’s way, housing for refugee families, education for the children, health services for the mothers and financial services through credit unions.
Polish credit unions donated 10 ambulances at the beginning of the war to bring pregnant mothers, sick children and elderly from Ukraine to Polish hospitals. When we met with the Polish Secretary of State, he asked us to continue providing ambulances. With American donations, Via Stella has provided another 13 ambulances to communities in Ukraine. How do we choose those communities? Requests come from Polish credit unions that have ties to Ukrainian communities, from Polish medical volunteers that collaborate with us and put communities in need in touch with us and from request from credit unions in Ukraine communities. Four have gone to the Zaporizhzhia region where Russian shelling and mines have exacted a high toll of civilian casualties.
The majority of refugees arriving in Poland are mothers with small children. During the first two years of the war, Via Stella led a credit union effort to place families in apartments for six months so that they could get their children in school and find work. This helped stabilize both the refugees and the communities into which they settled. While Via Stella provided such grants to 48 families, several local communities partnered with the effort and provided additional grants to refugees in their communities. We finished this phase last year.
Enrolling new students in Polish schools put a strain on local schools. Via Stella and local credit unions provided breakfasts and lunches for schools enrolling Ukrainian refugees. Via Stella also provided Polish language lessons to help the children adapt quickly, then later Ukrainian language and culture lessons so they would not lose their heritage. Via Stella also provided psychological counseling so that their health and learning would be less hampered by the trauma many had experienced. While Via Stella directly provided for 542 students, partnering credit unions reached three times that number. This phase continues to be a major priority.
While socialized medical services are available to refugees in Poland, they are often at the bottom of the queue and have extremely long waits. Via Stella has partnered with the credit union insurance company in Poland and credit unions in five communities to set up women’s health clinics in their communities to serve refugee women.
Lastly, for financial stability, refugees have been invited to open credit union accounts for longer term financial savings and access to payments. The number doing so was slow at first because many planned to return to Ukraine as soon as possible. The number has increased over the last year as the war has continued, many now have steady work and as many mothers now tell us they are afraid for their children to return to mined areas. Consequently, credit unions tell us the number of refugee members is increasing.
In Ukraine, Via Stella has continued to deliver medical equipment and supplies along with the ambulances. One community near Kharkiv was flooded with displaced families from occupied territory and the women could not go to Kharkiv for services so we provided the local hospital with the equipment to create a gynecological clinic. We have remained focused in the area of medical support.
The exception to this focus has been provision of generators during the winter months. Via Stella has provided 51 generators to communities in Ukraine to support local heating shelters in rural communities or urban apartment blocks and for schools. We work with the Ukrainian consul in Gdansk to identify where the generators go. Of course, we note the importance of continued access to power in reducing the risk of morbidity and mortality to civilians.
We do not provide funds into Ukraine. We provide the material and equipment described above. The Polish credit union national association does the due diligence of working with suppliers and local Polish paramedics vet the equipment and ambulances. We rely entirely on volunteers. Yet with support from U.S. credit unions, we leverage the Polish credit unions with their resources to multiply the number of people we can reach in their communities.
The website for the foundation is https://www.viastella.pl/
Our video is on YouTube is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XojEetynXW0&t=7s
MSA provides updates at https://mitchellstankovic.com/for-ukraine/