Church creates hub for Ukrainian refugees
A Cotswold church has launched a weekly hub for Ukrainian refugees and their hosts.
In late April, Chipping Campden Baptist Church partnered with Chipping Campden Homes for Ukraine Refugees to create the hub on a Monday morning in the church’s High Street building.
Up to 40 guests from Ukraine and hosts regularly attend the hub, along with six volunteers from the church.
Maralyn Harvey, who is co-ordinating the hub for Campden Baptist Church, said: “Sometimes the guests have only arrived a couple of days ago so it’s a real opportunity for them to meet with fellow country folk and to exchange stories and to talk about their home and their families and so on.
“Google translate is a lot of help to us to communicate but, at the end of the day, a smile and sometimes a hug is the same in any language.”
Maralyn added: “The people who come have fled Ukraine, often in quite traumatic circumstances, and are looking for some respite from the terrible things that are going on in their country or looking for maybe a better life in the UK.
“The hub is good in that it facilitates communication between the hosts and the Ukrainian guests so lots of things have come out of it. English as a second language classes are being made available elsewhere in the town, jobs are being sought, placements at schools are being sought and even social activities like having a meal together and going on a trip to Broadway Tower and a picnic. These are the kind of things that are coming out of the hub.
“We are very much partnering with the homes for Ukraine refugees organisations and chat with the people who are hosting via WhatsApp groups and they give help and advice on how to deal with the mountains of bureaucratic paperwork that has to be completed. So not only is the hub support for the Ukraine guests but also it’s a great support to the hosts.
“Children sometimes come to the hub with their parents prior to finding placements in local schools and they’re often quite traumatised by having left the country and their family, maybe their father or their brother and their pets and so on, and coming here to a rural setting with not much transport and lots of strange people talking a different language.
“We provide some craft activities for them to play with. One particular activity that seems to go very well is origami, making paper planes and trying them out to see if they work from the balcony in the church.
“We are fortunate in that a number of the hosts actually actually speak Ukrainian or Russian so they have been able to help a lot with the schools placement finding places for pupils and also helping them to settle into a school environment.”
Some of the Ukrainian guests are looking for university and further education opportunities so the hub is able to facilitate applications to the various universities.
Volunteers also point people to the local Food Bank and, where necessary, to the local doctors to local schools and other organisations which can help them. Occasionally they can provide a translator to go with them to the schools.
Maralyn added: “Many already have jobs in the local area, usually in the hospitality industry, which is great for them and obviously great for the hotels in the restaurants of the cafés in the locality.
“It’s a wonderful partnership with the homes for refugees organisation and it’s a real privilege to host the guests. There is a real buzz on a Monday morning in that room as they meet each other and chat.
“We don’t do an awful lot, we just provide the venue and we provide lots of cups of tea and coffee, cakes and biscuits and lots of smiles and friendliness so we hope that what we’re doing is really making them feel more welcome in this area. We are being blessed as much as they are. It’s lovely.”
