Tarvin4Ukraine

Tarvin community has come up trumps again; a group of 8 families have decided to host Ukrainian refugees. Working with a vital band of supporters we hope to have families with us soon. We have adopted the name Tarvin4Ukraine to allow us to become a community that can be offered help/training by the organisations matching hosts and guests, apply for funding etc.; it will also help when talking to local services. Tarvin School has been most helpful and have suggested that anyone trying to place children in schooling would benefit by being part of this group. It will help both junior and senior school decide how best to serve the children and their families. We can be reached on email tarvin4ukraine@hotmail.com or phone 07932376327, either Lyn or Lisa will respond.

The process of finding families and making a match is proving quite difficult partly because the term village in Ukraine equals unemployment and poverty and everyone has heard of London! That being said our group of homes is attracting some attention and we hope to have a positive outcome soon. There are many young women seeking homes so we might not have quite as many children in our group as we anticipated at the outset. We will keep you posted.

What sort of support is needed?

A Polish village has said that it takes 5 people for every family to support the guests (refugees) and their hosts. Things like taking the guests to various appointments, having them to lunch, taking them out for the day (giving the hosts a much needed break, taking them to the doctor in an emergency etc. etc. Once we get going, we will make a more definite request through Tarvin on-Line, the churches, notice board and local Facebook.

In the mean time should you meet a Ukrainian please be friendly but do not ask them their story, repeating their story over and over again is like giving them post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) If they want to share that of course is another thing entirely, coffee and tissues will doubtless be needed.

Contact details for anyone who wants to join us are tarvin4ukraine@hotmail.com or mobile 07932376327