Help connect volunteers with people starting over
Viktor tutors thirteen-year-old Ilja in Czech - and their lessons have gradually grown into shared free-time activities. Viktor is one of 160 volunteers giving their time to Organization for Aid to Refugees (OPU) for free. But pairings like this don't just happen without OPU's volunteer programme behind them. Help us fund the training and care that keep volunteers going, so this programme can continue.
Viktor came to the Organization for Aid to Refugees with a clear wish: to help someone who had fled the war in Ukraine with their Czech. We matched him with thirteen-year-old Iliia, who had been forced to flee to the Czech Republic and, despite all his efforts, was struggling with the language.
The early days were cautious, but the two of them gradually clicked. What began as ordinary tutoring turned into a friendship and a mentorship, where they practise the language informally too. Today they're largely self-sufficient — Iliia takes part in community events, and Viktor still has the backing of regular supervision sessions.
We'll keep supporting Viktor and Iliia, and we believe that with a good start, many more pairs like theirs can form. But this September, the OPU programme's project funding runs out. To keep these pairs together and help the programme grow, we need you're backing too.
What your support makes possible:
- 350 CZK/month — care and support for one volunteer for a month
- 600 CZK/month — the cost of one shared activity for a mentoring pair
- 1,200 CZK/month — introductory training for a new group of volunteers
- 3,000 CZK/month — regular volunteer supervision with a professional supervisor
The Organization for Aid to Refugees (OPU) has been building its volunteer programme since 1991. It has a broad base of active volunteers, who stay with OPU thanks in part to the thoughtful support they receive. Last year, volunteers supported by OPU gave 2,376 hours of help to people who had lost their homeland.
8 donors supported this project