#Ukraine - 🙏🙏🙏- part 2a
30th March 2022
Hello Everyone,
I have a personal story this week of two people - one in Kharkiv and one in a smallish parish in South Oxfordshire called Kidmore End.
Inevitably I need to tell you these 2 people are women - of a similar age. Both are living on their own but one is in a dangerous corner of East Ukraine, closeish to Donetsk and the other is in Gallowstree Common (GC).
Rachel in Gallowstree Common is our #Ukraine Homestay coordinator. She is in contact with 5 Ukrainian families trying to get them out of a war zone to 4 sponsors in Kidmore End. There are only 4 sponsors and there are 5 families. She sends information - silence. Then questions come back and she rushes to sort another round of logistics, technical form filling info and sends it back - silence.
Rachel goes to bed late and gets up early - she is tired and worried, living half in Ukraine and trying to do her day job facilitating work meetings when a what’s app call comes through from Kharkiv.
Ekaterina is 40years old living in rented accommodation in Kharkiv with two Yorkshire terriers who have pet passports and two puppies ( also YT’s) who are 10.5 weeks without even their most basic vaccinations. All her friends have left Kharkiv but she stayed behind with the puppies and now she is alone - quite alone, with cold water, little food, no heating and hallelujah- electricity. This means she can recharge her lifeline which is a mobile phone. And …..most important of all - thanks to Google and Elon Musk she can use ‘what’s app ‘on 4G. It’s not fast but it works. Thank God it works and Anfisa is a translator. Her English is flawless.
Rachel listens for 30 minutes to Ekaterina who explains all the reasons she cannot leave the flat with 4 dogs and come to the UK where the dogs have to go into quarantine for 3 months.
‘Quarantine is not prison’, counters Rachel. ‘The dogs will be well looked after by people who love dogs and you can go and visit. I have found a lovely quarantine kennels in Binfield. It is only 15 miles away’
‘But Romania is so dangerous’ wails Ekaterina
Rachel, well organised and practical, is used to telling businesses how to deal with difficult decisions. She is not about to indulge in what my James calls ‘psycho babble’.
‘There aren’t any bombs falling in Romania’ says Rachel in short order … ‘And you can get to the UK and we are going to be great friends’.
‘Thank you’ says Ekaterina and then they both start laughing -
James and I are the sponsors for this idiosyncratic family of five and I repeat the above as he wants to know what I find so funny.
‘Well’ says James, ‘if Ekaterina thinks Romania is dangerous - just tell her to wait until she gets to Gallowstree Common’ …….I have to phone Rachel back to tell her this and of course we are both in hysterics and even James is quietly amused at his own joke.
I have spent the last four days learning my geography of Kharkiv (East Ukraine almost on the Russian border), Chisinău ( capital of Moldova), Bacău ( North East Romania ). I have researched flights from Bacău to Luton. I know which airlines take dogs and which don’t. I have filled in the UK visa form online for refugees. I have attended a webinar with the Home Office. I know the details of GB pet health certificates.
James has re ignited the working relationship with his former Country Director in Romania who can pick up Ekaterina and the dogs in Moldova ( Independent Republic of) and drive her to Bacău and get her on a plane to the UK.
I am in awe of the energy individuals are putting into getting people to safety and the way we have persuaded our government and therefore ourselves to pay for everything including their pets in quarantine ( thank you - Zac Goldsmith) …..and yet behind the hysterical laughter there is the dawning realisation that Rachel and James and I are so so lucky.
Ekaterina is isolated, in danger ,and, in this parallel universe , where her day to day existence is in peril - the thought of Romania is terrifying. I don’t think she has even started to focus on the journey. It is as far from Kharkiv to Bacău as it is from London to Vienna.
God Bless her and thanks be to God for our safe existence.
For those of you who have signed up to the Government’s scheme and wonder why nothing has happened here is a most helpful summary of the current situation and what William’s small charity is doing about it.
1. A major flaw in the Government's policy is the need for UK citizens to 'find' a Ukrainian refugee. We have therefore now added a page for Ukrainians to complete when looking for UK accommodation and this is slowly gathering awareness in Ukraine. It will be a slow process but do share amongst your networks should you wish to.
The page is available here: https://www.nationalfundingscheme.org/ukraine/uk-rooms-for-ukrainians/
2. We have been working on a map (draft and in development here) showing where accommodation is available in the UK. This has been put together from provided postcodes and provides the most visual manner to show refugee Ukrainians where homes are available. Given that the UK is not the destination of choice (distance, language, expense...) we are finding it is those who already have a family connection here that consider the UK. Our registration form now has a tick-box to accept the postcode mapping but should any of you from previous registrations not wish to be on the map, please let us know.
Of general interest (and answering questions you may have about postcodes) is this excellent blog: https://beacon-dodsworth.co.uk/blog/all-you-need-to-know-about-postcodes-but-were-afraid-to-ask/#work
3. We have added a series of documents that should be of help around the visa process, how to welcome your guests, dealing with post traumatic stress etc. My thanks to those who have sent them in and do reply with any documents you may feel would be useful to others. We may not post everything to avoid duplication etc.
4. Our next step is to develop some broad and dynamic database matching so that Ukrainians can be matched against postcode, town, rooms etc offered.
Finally, thank you to everyone who has offered help and assistance to us. We've not reverted in detail not because we are not grateful (we are immensely grateful) but because we want to have the broad-matching in place before working out how best to guide and support a volunteer base. In due course we will be in touch.
With all best wishes
William
Much love Jane
Withy Copse, Horsepond Rd, Kidmore End RG4 9HN. Tel 07768 791429
The Four Yorkshire Terriers in Ekaterina's flat in Kharkiv
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