This World Refugee Day, NESsT is launching an initiative to empower refugees from Ukraine to access quality jobs and rebuild their lives with support from Cisco Foundation.
Key points:
Since Russia's offensive on Ukraine began, over 3.5 million people have fled to Poland and more than 400,000 to Romania. The refugee population mainly consists of people from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities including women, children, elders, and people with disabilities.
The program will provide financing and business assistance to a cohort of impact-driven enterprises in Poland and Romania that will provide refugees and other local underserved communities with career training, quality job opportunities, and additional wraparound services, including mental health support, language classes, and childcare, among others.
By providing these refugees with quality jobs that address talent gaps in both countries, they will be able to sustain themselves and their families until they are able to return to their country. The skills gained will also allow them to continue working during Ukraine’s recovery.
Russia’s violent offense against Ukraine on February 24 has triggered Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II – more than 4.9 million Ukrainians fled the country in the first two months. To date, a quarter of the population has been driven from their homes, including an estimated two-thirds of the country’s children.
Two of the main host countries to the refugees from Ukraine are Poland and Romania. Since Russia’s invasion began, over 3.5 million people have crossed the border into Poland and over 600,000 into Romania. The refugee population mainly consists of people from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities including women, children, elders, and people with disabilities.
Besides short-term humanitarian relief, refugees need long-term employment support to regain economic security
Displaced workers from Ukraine face a multitude of challenges as they try to start new lives in other countries, including significant language and cultural barriers and limited access to economic resources and stable income generating opportunities.
Similarly, Ukrainians who are returning to their country are likely to experience difficulties re-establishing their former jobs as labor demands have shifted in the country due to the war.
With support from the Cisco Foundation, NESsT seeks to help people affected by the war in Ukraine to rebuild their lives
NESsT has been investing in impact-driven enterprises in Central Europe for 25 years and has supported over 100 enterprises in the region that sustained over 30,000 jobs. Building on this experience, NESsT’s new program seeks to move beyond resolving the immediate humanitarian needs of the refugees and offer solutions for long term employment and income security needs.
The program will provide financing and business assistance to a cohort of impact-driven enterprises in Poland and Romania that provides refugees and other local underserved communities with career training, quality job opportunities, and additional wraparound services, including mental health support, language classes, and childcare, among others.
“Beyond immediate crisis response, Cisco Foundation is investing in solutions that drive long-term resilience and recovery efforts for Ukrainian refugees. Building on our successful partnership with NESsT over the last six years, we are proud to support their Ukraine employment initiative to create high quality jobs that enable Ukrainian refugees to regain economic security and access other essential services.”
Expanding the strategies of existing NESsT Poland and Romania Portfolio Enterprises to support refugees
“Many enterprises in our existing portfolio in Romania and Poland reacted quickly to the refugee situation, mobilizing resources to meet the urgent health and safety needs of displaced people coming into their countries. Since the war broke out, NESsT also started working with its current portfolio of enterprises to increase their capacity to support refugees.” – Filip Wadowski, NESsT Poland Director
The Future Collars Team preparing SIM cards for refugees from Ukraine.
Future Collars and Mamo Pracuj, two NESsT Poland enterprises that support women from low-income backgrounds, started offering its IT training courses to refugee women, providing them opportunities to work in high-growth tech jobs that can accommodate their childcare needs.
Hearty Foundation and asperIT Foundation are two other NESsT Poland enterprises that expanded their services, equipping youth from Ukraine with career training and resources.
As part of the program, NESsT will provide these existing social enterprises in Poland and Romania business guidance and capital to create and increase their capacity to provide refugees with decent jobs.
In addition, we will also seek new enterprises in Poland and Romania in sectors where significant talent gaps exist, including administrative, construction, IT, logistics, retail, transportation, as well as sectors that are expanding as they respond to the needs of refugees and other underserved local communities such as childcare and catering.
Raising awareness on the importance and merits of building a just, equitable, diverse and inclusive labor force
All NESsT portfolio enterprises are given access to tools that allow them to track business, social and environmental impact indicators on a quarterly and annual basis.
These tools not only capture the number of people trained and the number of people placed into jobs, but also assess whether people are moving out of poverty and achieving job security. Other metrics that are closely tracked include gender wage equity and the diversity of underserved people supported.
“We want to make sure that there’s an education campaign as part of the program that emphasizes how economies and businesses benefit immensely by becoming more diverse, equitable and inclusive. Through our work, we seek to demonstrate how citizens of Poland and Romania and Ukrainian refugees can work together to build vibrant and robust economies.”