Journeys and the kindness of strangers

One leg of a journey started for V and O at 9am from the grim conditions of the refugee centre at Stryiskyi Park, Lviv, ending some 9 hours later at a hostel in Katowice, Poland, where they will wait for their visas. You can see the anxiety on faces last night, which is still there tonight, although conditions are so much better. No more than 4 people will share this room, rather than 50. 
We will keep in touch with V and O, who may have a long wait as visa approval has slowed down drastically. One theory is that visas were going through so quickly that staff numbers at the home office processing centre were reduced, but by too much. So MAD Foundation in Lviv has only had one visa out of 32 come through in the last month.

We have also reflected on the journey of the first family who settled in our village back in April, having fled bombing in Kyiv with a young child, ending up in Krakow, where we met them in the food tent. Both adults have full time jobs, the little girl is well settled in the village school and they have supported other families who have moved to the area. Now, some 6 months later, they are getting ready to move into their own rented accommodation.

Their sponsor has said, "I am so proud of all three of them for the way they have managed to find a way forward in such difficult circumstances and theirs is definitely a success story. So many people have stepped up to help and it really is a lovely example of "The kindness of strangers."

And so, back to today, where the weather in Lviv was perfect and we managed to have quite a relaxing day. But we could not help thinking about the horrors in Kyiv and elsewhere, where kamikaze drones and missile attacks will have come out of that same blue sky.
If anyone is able to make a donation please:

1. Open PayPal and, when asked for name of payee or email, enter trawden4ukraine@hotmail.com. 

2. Use the collection box in Trawden community shop.

Thank you to those who have kindly donated recently, which means that we will be able to provide a washing machine and some other much needed items to an orphanage near Odesa.

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