Artel Initiative

Actions

Artel Initiative is an informal group of more than 70 people with different skills and work experience. Most of them are related to creative, craftworks and handicraft professions. The initiative supports different communities with migration experience, creating a common space for cooperation, integration, training or help in finding a job in the profession.

The idea

The idea stems from the need to support migrants who came to Poland both from Belarus as a result of repression after the 2020 elections, as well as from Ukraine after the outbreak of a full-scale war in February 2022. 

Among migrants from Eastern European countries there is a very large group of people professionally engaged in handicrafts or craftworks. After leaving their countries, they found themselves in a new reality, where they began to look for opportunities to use their skills and talents. People began to look for similar individuals, text each other on social media and organize meetings. This is how this initiative was founded.

Artel’s leaders, Alena Kazakova and Safiya Yermachonak also belong to the creative environment and decided to transform from an informal group into a social organization to continue supporting the members of the group, to be able to carry out larger projects and develop a creative environment among migrants in Poland.

How does the Program support their actions?

The team applied to the program primarily due to the need for support in organizational and formal issues regarding the establishment and running of an NGO. An important thread concerns planning the strategy for activities that they prepare with program experts and networking with the handicraft community.