Małgorzata Wokacz-Zaborowska is the representative of the Autism-Poland Association at Autism-Europe. Members of this association are helping children and adults with autism to integrate into the country after having travelled thousands of kilometres seeking refuge.
Question: We know the difficulty of communication in general, but in this war situation how is the best way to communicate to autistic children (both Ukrainian and Polish) what is happening?
Małgorzata Wokacz-Zaborowska (MWZ): Here in Poland the stories, comments, and pictures of war are now unavoidable. Our children meet new colleagues at schools, in kindergartens and in other places. They experience a new language, new names, and even new music. We need to communicate it in a proper way by adapting to the capabilities of our children so they may understand it.
My son, who is an autistic person, is 12 years old. When the crisis started, he seemed interested, a bit worried, but also confused since he did not know how to ask a question. So we discussed the situation using very simple messages, showing a map and explaining what a war is in general, but at the same time caring for his sense of security.
We avoid watching TV and discussing the situation with other adults when he is around. Many parents struggle with communicating this war situation to children with autism, especially when a child is not verbal, so they often turn to a specialist for help. We all need to learn how to communicate it properly.
Question: When you receive autistic people and their families at the border, what is the integration process like? How do you do that first needs assessment? And how do they arrive?
MWZ: First of all, I need to point out that there is no one social support system for the refugees with special needs functioning in Poland. The situation was unexpected and surprised us all, so starting from the very first days there were more and more volunteers and NGOs involved, located close to the Polish border with Ukraine so as to help as soon and as much as possible.
At the same time some organizations started to communicate and coordinate the efforts of various organisations involved in helping Ukrainian families with persons with autism. That is what we did in the Autism-Poland Association that unites 30 organizations from all over Poland that are acting for the benefit of autistic children, adults and their families.
We have been gathering information from our members referring to what they are doing, how are they helping, what are their capacities in this regard. We have been constantly updating that list. Then we shared information with other organizations in Poland and abroad, first of all with Autism-Europe and its members. We also shared it on the social media including various Facebook groups, so that it may reach volunteers, activists and also directly people searching for help.
In each case when we help Ukrainians, we first need to meet basic needs that are accommodation, food and safety. Then we may think of defining and meeting special needs.
We have been facing problems with finding proper accommodation, since the collective shelters are not appropriate for people with special needs. People arrive by trains, buses or cars, some of them come on foot to the border after walking for many days. Some of them change to another means of transport at the border. Some are more independent, have relatives or friends here, some try to find right away a place on their own, but many of them need assistance even starting with evacuation.
Some people come with no luggage, they just escaped their house with empty hands, no documents, no money, not to mention medical files. There are some organizations and volunteers in Poland that are coordinating the whole way of evacuation of individuals, cooperating with Ukrainian partners.
But the needs are enormous, transport conditions are difficult and thus many people with disabilities are still waiting for a chance to leave Ukraine.
One aspect should be emphasized here, there is no efficient social welfare system, fully covering all needs of people with disabilities in Poland. There are many Poles with disabilities waiting for an appropriate support, some waiting for many years.
So the situation when there are thousands of people with special needs arriving in Poland, puts us all in a difficult situation. Nevertheless, we all are open to help as much as possible and to share what we have here. Sometimes it is not much but it may mean a lot for others.