A new way of working...

We turned up at 9 am to begin the next leg of our journey, working alongside a British charity called Ukrainian Sponsorship Pathway UK (USPUK). USPUK is a resource for refugees and all the workers on the ground are refugees themselves, apart from us.

We're based in the middle of a refugee centre (in a disused shopping mall), housing about 500 people, who sleep in rooms of about 50 on rows of camp beds. It's as grim as it sounds, but there is the usual army of volunteers, providing regular cooked meals, activities for children, etc.

USPUK completes an online form for refugees wanting to move to the UK and links with Citizens UK, a community based charity, which finds sponsors for them. There are community leaders in various areas who are responsible for the suitability, checking of sponsors, etc, and they are trying to create Ukrainian communities, a bit like we've been doing in East Lancashire and Dorset. If anybody really wants to, you can see my flowchart!! Bob's heart beat faster when I invited him to look at it....

This is a new way of working for us - not as personal - but we are introducing our tried and tested method of circulating amongst the refugees, sitting down in the food tent, etc, so that we can provide information about the scheme and encourage more people to apply. Also, we can answer questions about the benefits system, applying for jobs, what a particular area is like, the weather (a surprisingly popular question)...

We are finally legitimate and don't have to worry about being thrown out of anywhere or being arrested, at least we don't think so!

Comments

  1. Steve9 May 2022 at 13:56

    Brilliant! This sounds like a much better and organised way forward xx

    ReplyDelete

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