50 offer to host refugees

FIFTY people in Henley have signed up to house refugees from Ukraine.

The total was revealed by Gemma Birch, who has an online hub called Mother Sister Daughter to support the new arrivals and their hosts.

She spoke about her initiative at a public meeting held at the d:two centre in Henley on Wednesday
evening.

Ms Birch said she hoped that more people would sign up after the meeting and also appealed for volunteers to help run the network, particularly people with administrative skills.

She has prepared welcome boxes with essentials for refugees to receive when they arrive under the Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Ms Birch said: “No one has arrived in Henley yet under the scheme and there have been a lot of problems with the allocation process. The demographic of refugees currently arriving is the most vulnerable group, women and children, and they do need to make sure everything is done to safeguard them.

“I think that’s a big part of why it’s taking so long.

“It’s also an unprecedented situation as there has never been such a groundswell of people wanting to help and house refugees.

“It’s such a huge undertaking and they are learning as they go along. We’re hoping we can support that and help match people up at a local level.”

Wednesday’s meeting had to be moved from Henley town hall because 130 people had signed up to attend and it was livestreamed on YouTube.

The meeting was hosted by Dr Krish Kandiah, who founded the Sanctuary Foundation and explained the process for registering to host a refugee.

Other speakers included Sarah Lane, a project worker at the Nomad youth and community project, town councillor David Eggleton, who has been collecting donations for Ukraine, and Laura Reineke, founder of the Henley Music School, who organised the Play for Peace in Market Place last month. South Oxfordshire district councillor Maggie Filipova-Rivers spoke about how her council was working with the Government scheme.

The meetings also heard from Ukrainians who are already in Henley as they have family here.

Organiser Sara Kandiah said: “People have been so supportive. I had a slide of people I wanted to thank because everyone we’ve made contact with, from businesses to churches, has wanted to support us and the people of Ukraine.

“People are keen to contribute and we want to help them work out what they can do and help make connections between people.

“We think this will create small neighbourhood support groups. A lot of people have been in touch to say they can’t host Ukrainians but they are keen to provide support to someone on their street who can.”

For more information, visit www.mothersister
daughter.org.uk

Meanwhile, English teacher Christopher Ward, who fled Kyiv to avoid being caught up in the invasion and is now living in Shiplake, has launched an online platform called UKforUkraine to pull together useful information and the ways to help the people in the war-torn country while also promoting local efforts.

For more information, www.ukforukraine.org