How Czech Scouts transformed two hotels into safe havens for refugees in five days

After the start of the war in Ukraine, over 450,000 Ukrainian refugees sought temporary protection in Czechia. With limited housing options available, many refugees found themselves seeking shelter in public buildings, such as sporting venues and churches. In response, Skautský Institut (Czech Scouting Institute, SI), a special unit within Junák - Czech Scouting, worked to provide aid to Ukrainian refugees through volunteer services and a community centre.

Jan Barta, a stock market trader, approached the Scout unit. He had a plan to re-open two hotels that had been closed to the public since the pandemic, only to host refugees at his own expense. He was only missing one thing: a team to run the project and put his plan into action. This is when he decided to approach them.

"As a result of our previous actions with the collection and volunteer programmes, he believed we would be able to put together a team of Scouts to run a hotel," says Skautský Institut Deputy Director, Jakub Ambrozek.

The Scouts assembled the team, mostly made up of people who initially signed up for the volunteer service. There were full-time employees and volunteers all along the way. There were also community workers who came to help refugee families with formalities and useful information and services. Dozens of volunteers offered assistance. Their contribution primarily consisted of preparing both hotels to make them operational. Later, they worked at hotel desks, as community workers, and served food.

In just five days, it went from Jan’s proposal to the Scout volunteers welcoming the first groups of Ukrainians to the hotel. The project was based on a general ability and willingness to help in any way that was available.

The hotels provided a safe haven for refugees, serving as a buffer for those with no other options and a transit shelter for those continuing their journey.

“At first, my daughter Vika and grandson Radomir (he was 1.5 years then) arrived on a humanitarian train to Prague. They lived a little over a month with a Czech family. But had to evict on October 1, 2022. The hotel appeared as the good angel. We lived at the hotel for 3 months, from October 1 to December 31. The hotel saved us, because at that time we would stay on the street.” says Ludmila, 57, refugee from Chernihiv.

Refugees would hear of the hotels through Organisation for Aid to Refugees who was also running a hotel and later picked the most vulnerable refugees through their contact work to come stay at their two hotels. Their guests were mainly women and children. Men would be accommodated as exception.

Over 400 people passed through Hotel Svojsík (named after the founder of Scouting in Czechia), which had a capacity of 205 guests and was entirely booked for five months. Hotel Rakša, with a capacity of around 90 guests, has been in use since March 2022 and is still in operation. The Scouts also provided support in finding more permanent accommodation, essential services, and employment opportunities for the refugees.

“These people are extremely brave. They are also very sad - their families are in danger, their country is at war. But they seldom complained, they were proud, unbroken, unbreakable. Their return home had been a priority for all of them, but it is constantly being postponed as the war goes on. They have my admiration for all of this, for how fast they adapted, learned the local ways, even the little things, like sorting waste.” says Věra Frühaufová, hotel manager.

To this day, hundreds of Ukrainians visit the Scout community centre every day, and find familiar Scout faces from the hotels. Scouts run activities and educational programmes at the centre, that welcome Ukrainian children daily, and will continue throughout 2023 along with Hotel Rakša.

Czech Scouts also provided vital support to Ukrainians through a regional partnership with UNICEF, and have integrated hundreds of young Ukrainians into local Scout groups. The Scouts continue to run activities and educational programs at their community centre, welcoming Ukrainian children daily and offering them a safe place to learn new skills and build new friendships.

This article is part of the Scouting Forward campaign that aims to celebrate how scouting empowers youth to become active citizens to respond to the social, economic, and environmental challenges facing our world, supported by the Erasmus+ programme.