This international platform connects refugees, volunteers and organizations to respond to the urgent need to integrate refugees, by making emotional support groups and the learning of local languages widely available.

SPEAK For Ukraine was launched on March 12th, 16 days after the start of the war in Ukraine, to respond to the need to integrate the, now, over 2.8 million people who have been forced to leave the country.

This platform connects volunteers to organizations, as well as to people who, after arriving in their host country, need support to break the language barrier and create an informal network of support. In these first days, hundreds of sign ups were already registered from over 60 cities worldwide.

Launched in collaboration with the Representation for the European Commission in Portugal & Associação Be Human, and with the support of Fundação Ageas, this platform will allow:

• Refugees from Ukraine to have free and easy access to language groups, where they can learn the host country’s language, and to emotional support groups to help them, and their families, to integrate into their communities.
• Volunteers to support refugees from Ukraine by leading language groups, by sharing the local language, and supporting organizations with translation and/or interpretation, from Ukrainian or Russian to a multitude of languages.
• Organizations and civil society to refer refugees, as well sign up to be connected with a network of volunteer translators/interpreters, and access emotional support groups.

“Through SPEAK For Ukraine we want to complement the work SPEAK already develops on behalf of the integration of refugees and migrants regarding the language barrier, in the different cities around the world where it has an active presence.” says Hugo Menino Aguiar, Co-founder & CEO at SPEAK. “With this platform we have created solution for integration not simply at the individual level, but at the family level as well. This way we  guarantee families can overcome the language barrier and build an informal support network in their host country by expanding our community to Ukraine’s neighboring countries where SPEAK does not yet have an active presence. At the same time, we seek to guarantee that organizations all over Europe that work with refugees can find all the linguistic and integration support they need at SPEAK For Ukraine.”

Additional information

You can follow along any news on this initiative www.speakforukraine.org (PT | EN | UA | RU)  or through the hashtag #SPEAKforUkraine.

About SPEAK

SPEAK is an impact startup founded in Portugal in 2014 as a solution to tackle the social exclusion of migrants and refugees. SPEAK Lithuania has joined the network since 2020 and is available in Kaunas and Vilnius. The organization has a community of 52,000 people across 23 cities. SPEAK was one of the winners of the European Google Impact Challenge and won third place at the 2019 Chivas Venture Tournament. For more information, visit www.speak.social.

SPEAK’s social media: Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter