Organised Chaos

We served just over 1000 fruit cups in two hours this morning in a frenetic but calm way, complete with disco dancing from Bob, our latest organiser having introduced music to the fruit bar.

In contrast, the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme is not so much disorganised as non-functioning. We returned 'home' today to 60 plus emails from prospective sponsors, from as far apart as Bournemouth, Glasgow and Ebbwvale (now up to about 150!). This was in response to a single Facebook post from someone we met here. Many prospective sponsors had applied weeks ago and heard nothing. We have had to create a new system of collecting all the information needed for the onerous visa applications, which we'll pass on to the Ukrainian volunteers who are completing them now. We've had to do some 'hand holding' for the first couple of applications to help the Ukrainians with the idiosyncrasies of British addresses, middle names (nonexistent in Ukraine) and local authorities. 

We're still going to try to provide the personal touch of meeting with families and trying to connect them with sponsors who will best meet their needs. For instance, today we met with a woman who fled Ukraine with her 80-year-old father, who has early Parkinson's and memory difficultie, and matched them with a couple who we know will provide them with the environment and support they need. 

We also met, by chance, a young guy from Grimsby Job Centre, who had taken a few days holiday from work to come over here and provide information on refugees' benefits entitlement. It was such a generous and useful gesture, 7and I now know more about Universal Credit than I ever thought possible! 

I'm not sure if we'll be able to carry on working on the fruit bar every morning, now that the linking of sponsors with families has become so all-consuming. Bob thinks so but we need to look after ourselves. In the time we've been here I've had a cold and a stye (I think) on my eye, for which I was prescribed a camomile teabag compress and a hot hard-boiled egg! On the positive, Bob's breathing is much better away from the dampness of East Lancashire! 

Comments

  1. Mum6 April 2022 at 15:14

    I have come to the conclusion that the UK government are just paying lip service their sponsorship scheme, looks like they are being compassionate whilst hood winking their voters yet again. Will they ever realise that Boris is an expert liar.

    ReplyDelete

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