Amsterdam Ukrainians help refugees: ‘We don’t want to sit still’ | Amsterdam
Amsterdammer helps AmsterdammerIn many places in Amsterdam people live in poverty. With van Parool readers, the Amsterdammer helps Amsterdammer foundation makes a wish come true. Today: The Ukrainian Women Refugee Association (UWRA) is asking for donations to organize courses and childcare.
“My compatriots who arrive here feel lost,” says Ukrainian Irina (37). “I have lived here for about five years and I feel strong here, because I am independent and have been able to build my own life here. I also want that for the women who have just arrived.”
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Irina has been collecting money and goods for her native country. She also started a refugee support group on Telegram, which has already attracted more than 1,000 Ukrainian women. Some of those women have united in the Ukrainian Women Refugee Association (UWRA) and every Monday and Wednesday in the community center of Combiwel Buurtwerk Zuid in De Pijp.
“Many Ukrainians who already lived in the Netherlands wanted to do something for the refugees, and also want to make many of the women who have just arrived here useful. Now we have this community that supports and helps further.”
Trauma
Olena (46) has been in Amsterdam with her son since March. “Our first meeting was beautiful, but also very intense. Everyone’s toe is different. several of us are functioning well, other women have a lot and need more support.” For that reason, the interviewees are not listed in the newspaper with their full names.
Myles Bavin of United Way (NL Framework), which was involved in founding the UWRA. “They have not yet been able to think about their own needs at all.”
Olena nods, swallows her tears, smiles, shrugs. “But we all have in common that we want to build something on this. We don’t want to sit still, you know?”
powerless
As project manager Olena is closely involved in the various groups within the group. She goes around the room to point out who is doing what: “Marta teaches English. Alexandra too, and she also gives art therapy. She is a psychologist. Just like the other Olena, she is even a trauma specialist. We have a whole group of volunteers in our midst,” she says proudly.
“We like to do it”, says Marta (27), who has also lived in the Netherlands for about five years. “I felt very powerless at the beginning of the war – I still do. By teaching these women better English, they may be able to get back to work here. They regain some control over their lives.”
“It’s very tough, but we can’t give up,” adds Alexandra (35). “Moreover, I am an expert by experience. In 2014 I had to flee from the Donbas to Kiev.”
“Ah, you poor woman”, trauma specialist Olena (45) sighs.
“Well, I now have skills that I can teach other women,” Alexandra laughs.
Whether it is as therapeutically easy to deal with? No, tell Alexandra and Olena. “But I am a Ukrainian speaking psychologist. I’m just needed now,” says Olena.
Besieged City
The sentiments of the volunteers within the UWRA are endorsed by the other women. They are relieved to be in the Netherlands, but ‘sitting still’ and not knowing where to start building a new existence is not without it.
For example, 70-year-old Galina from Mariupol tells that she was an economics teacher in Ukraine, but a teaching job here in the Netherlands is acceptable given her age and the fact that they only speak Ukrainian and Russian.
“I’m also still recovering from what I’ve been through. I have lived 50 days in a besieged city, without electricity from water, without any form of humanity. in the end the only way to escape was through Russia. You can imagine how adaptable that has been,” she says with the help of the interpreter Kate (17), who was dropped off by her father at the Polish-Ukrainian woman and traveled to the Netherlands on her own.
Being together already brings a lot to the women in UWRA, but to be able to live a bit of a ‘normal’ life, the group would like to organize more courses, weather and mindfulness classes and childcare during the summer holidays. they currently have no budget and there is also a lack of space, because the community center does not have a gym, for example. Donations to the support group are very welcome, in all forms.
Donations can be transferred stating ‘UWRA’ to NL30 RABO 0125 9437 33 in the name of Stichting Amsterdammer helps Amsterdammer, or send an email to Myles Bavin if you would like to contribute to the UWRA in a different way: [email protected]
United Way Netherlands
United Way Netherlands supports small and often problematic payments in the Netherlands. They do this by helping to set up and support groups such as the Ukrainian Women Refugee Association (UWRA). United Way helps with the practical organization within the group, but also with arranging volunteers and sponsoring. It also helps with collaborations with other organizations, such as Combiwel, whose community center the UWRA now uses.
In this way, United Way and organizations want to connect with each other and vulnerable people, including refugees of lonely elderly, have more effects in social structures in their own environment.
Last week Derk van Tongeren asked in this section to get a new denture† Maarten Rehm donates.
“A friend recently said: I’ll never see you smile again. that’s right. I prefer not to show my teeth,” Derk van Tongeren (43) said last week. His teeth are badly damaged, especially he has lived on the street for five years and oral hygiene was not a priority. At this point, he has just under 30 percent of his teeth left, and the ones left in his mouth are in bad shape. Now that Van Tongeren has got his life back on track, he would like to have his repaired. The nasty face hinders his social life and his chances in the job market.
A dental prosthesis is the only solution, but a visit to the dentist is unaffordable for him, and against a wall at the municipality of Van Tongeren, because there is no medical need for new teeth.
Maarten Rehm (42) would like to help him. “Six years ago I started my own company, Edel Tandtechniek, with my partner. I did this for my own job satisfaction, but also to make others happy. We would like to help as many people as possible to get good dentures. Derk looks ahead, he wants to move on. His story appeals to me. We love it when a patient walks out the door and dares to smile again. I love that we can help so he can reapply and rebuild his life.”
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