How can childcare help Ukrainian mothers integrate into their host country?

Two years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, how are millions of Ukrainian women and their children adapting to life in their new host countries? Are they getting the support they need?

Access to childcare is a crucial step in the integration process. Euronews reporter Fanny Gauret travelled to Poland in this latest episode of Real Economy to hear from the women endorsing and benefiting from these childcare facilities.

Learning a new language, looking for a job or having one's qualifications recognised are just some of the challenges Ukrainian refugees face when trying to rebuild their lives elsewhere.

Ukrainian conscription laws prevent men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country, therefore, women who have fled with their families are often the sole caregivers to young children, making it near-impossible to secure employment in their host countries without childcare.

The Comenius Foundation, which was established in the early 2000s to provide better conditions for children in their early years, has 37 nurseries in Warsaw.

Not only have these 'spynkas' created safe spaces for refugee children to learn and play, they have also freed up time for Ukrainian mothers to find jobs in Poland.

"When we got here, my child barely spoke because of the stress but I see changes in my youngest son, he started to talk for the first time and communicate with other children... he has made friends here; we can say he is happy," Maria Odinets, a child psychologist, told Euronews.

Odinets fled Ukraine six months ago with her husband and three children and is hoping to have her diploma recognised in Poland so that she can find a job soon.

“It helps me because I now have free time from 09:00-15:00. During this time I can study Polish, look for a job or help my older children and pick them up at school,” she added.

Monika Woźniak, the director of the Comenius Foundation, told Euronews that support is essential: "A very large percentage of our children, they have trauma, so our attention had to be strongly focused on helping children who could not cope and will not cope in normal primary schools and nurseries".

Monika wants to open more daycare centres and register them in the official education system.

"We hope to launch EU-funded programs that will help integrate Ukrainian children and their parents into the Polish early education system. We are talking about children who, if they have a good foundation, will finally start living well," explained Woźniak.

These 'spynkas' are funded by UNICEF, they also receive support from the Polish government and some European funds.

Many of the staff working at these centres are Ukrainian refugees, like Yuliana.

The former decorator told Euronews that when she first arrived, she struggled to secure a job that would allow time for her to pick up her children after daycare or school and care for them at night. Today she works as an educator in one of these 'spynkas' and says the most important thing she can do is work.

"If it wasn't for this job - I don't know... At first, I could have become a cleaner, then maybe, I would have found something else… but this spynka really helped me to adapt," she said.

What other support is being offered to Ukrainian women and children?

To date, almost two-thirds of Ukrainian refugees have found employment in Poland, according to government figures.

Meanwhile, the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) has allocated €8.9 billion in the fight against child poverty in the EU. Some of this money can be used to finance and increase the number of official 'spynkas' as well as improve the quality of places in nursery schools.

Ewa Flaszynska, the labour market department lead at the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, explained that by increasing the number of children assigned to a single educator more Ukrainian women have had time to job hunt.

"Almost 70 per cent of Polish women are active and statistics show that Ukrainian women who have joined us are also active in the labour market,” she said.

While some Ukrainian women have already returned home or are hoping to do so in the near future, the extension of childminding services has proven key to Ukrainian refugee families trying to find stability abroad.

Click on the video in the media player above to watch Fanny's full report.