Resiliency Gardens for Ukrainian Refugees and IDPs

We are excited to share the launch of a new school garden program at SzkoUA, the Polish-Ukrainian School in Warsaw. Through a partnership with Resiliency Gardens, this initiative is creating opportunities for Ukrainian refugee students to reconnect with food growing, nature, and hands-on learning.

The program began with a workshop titled "Co-designing a School Garden," which brought together 24 Ukrainian refugee students, their teacher, and volunteer horticulture students from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW). During the workshop, participants explored the key factors that influence successful gardening, including sunlight, soil, and moisture. Students learned an important lesson that every gardener eventually discovers: a good garden begins by listening to the land.

When the students discovered that their original plans for tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, beets, and peppers would need to be adjusted because of too much shade, they did what good problem-solvers do: they redesigned. The garden will now focus on herbs, leafy greens, wild strawberries, nasturtiums, and even a few experiments with pumpkins and zucchini. The tomatoes the children planted earlier will continue growing on sunny classroom windowsills.

This project is especially meaningful because all of the participating children are refugees from Ukraine. In Ukraine, gardening and growing food are a natural part of life for many families. In Warsaw, those opportunities are much harder to access. Through this garden, students will reconnect with the experience of growing food, observing nature, working together, and taking pride in creating something beautiful and useful.

The garden will also become a living classroom for lessons in biology, ecology, nutrition, composting, waste reduction, and sustainability. And, of course, there will be the simple joy of eating strawberries directly from the plants and using fresh mint and herbs grown by the students themselves.

We are grateful to the Ukrainian House Foundation, SzkoUA, the volunteer students from SGGW, and all those helping bring this project to life. Together, we are planting more than seeds—we are cultivating resilience, belonging, and hope for the future.