SCORES of Winchester residents have opened their homes to Ukrainian refugees since the launch of the government's sponsorship scheme.

Phase one of the initiative opened on Friday for visa applications from Ukrainians wishing to travel to the UK and who have a named sponsor.

So far hundreds of thousands of people have expressed their interest in helping those fleeing the war.

According to The Times, Winchester residents have been leading the way alongside Cornwall, Leeds, Wiltshire and Dorset in pledging their properties to the Homes for Ukraine initiative.

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Debbie Caldwell, 55, who lives in Sparsholt with her husband, is one of those who has registered.

She's been in contact with Ilya, a Ukrainian father who's looking to send his two children, Sasha, 23, and Igor, 16, to safety, and is currently trying to help the pair apply for visas.

Debbie says she has also set up a Whatsapp group for other interested villagers in hope of creating a small community of Ukrainians to help them settle.

She said: "I had a bit of time last week as I had Covid and I was watching the news and reading the papers and I just couldn't bear it - I felt so hopeless. But the problem with opening up just one house in a little village is that it's not great for the Ukrainians coming in. So, I spoke to a few friends and I thought, 'actually, I'm just going to email the whole village'. The more we have in numbers the easier it is for both sides.

"If we can get around 10 houses with Ukrainians in then they've got their own little community and we can do dinners in the hall and hold social events to help them settle in, because it's just horrendous for them, isn't it."

So far Debbie has had seven other villagers offer their homes while around 30 more have pledged to help with transport, clothing and additional support.

However, she has said the initial stages of the scheme have not come without difficulty, and issues with families safely finding a sponsor and then overcoming the language barrier to navigate the visa process has proved a stumbling block for many.

To help alleviate the early teething problems, Debbie has been in contact with a Russian speaking fixer who is currently trying to connect refugees with English host families from the Polish border with Ukraine. Debbie says she is hoping he will help ease the process for other Winchester and Sparsholt residents.

Coincidentally, that same fixer was taught Russian by Tatiana Salvage, 43, who runs LinguaFAST, a language school in Micheldever.

Born in Belarus to a Ukrainian father, Tatiana still has family in Chernihiv, a city in north Ukraine which has been heavily bombed. She also has Russian citizenship and has lived in Moscow.

As such, she has decided to offer free translation services to the "kind" Winchester and Basingstoke families who are looking to host refugees. She will run free English lessons for refugees.

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She said: "People who come here will probably feel incredibly stressed already, and most will only speak Ukrainian or Russian. So I thought if I form a sort of group then they can meet each other and it may give them some kind of strength to move forward and settle here."

Tatiana says she has been offered Northbrook Hall in Micheldever to run the lessons and has been contacted by around 20 interested potential hosts in the last day alone.

Reflecting on the flood of support, Councillor John Tippett-Cooper said: “We’ve heard that Winchester has some of the highest numbers in the UK of people volunteering to host Ukrainian families. The reaction to the unfolding Ukraine crisis from people in Winchester has been astonishing but not surprising.

"Last summer, local charities and community organisations in Winchester were overwhelmed with offers to help Afghan evacuees fleeing the Taliban. The Ukraine refugee crisis presents a new, huge challenge, but the city council and Winchester City of Sanctuary has been inundated with offers of support from individuals and local businesses.

"At the moment, while there has been some limited guidance published last week, Winchester City Council and other local authorities are awaiting details from the Government on what precisely their role may entail and the systems and processes that would be needed to meet the needs of people from Ukraine fleeing the country. However, the council are preparing to help Ukrainian families and Winchester hosts as much as possible."

 

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