Since the February 24th 2022, five million refugees have left Ukraine in search of a new home.
So far, 114,000 Ukrainians have come to the UK looking for refuge.
Alisa, 41 and her two daughters Yeva,17 and Anhelina, 14, were one of the first families to leave everything behind and flee from their home outside of Kyiv.
Alisa said: “We started to leave as soon as the bombs landed.”
The family walked to the border with Romanians and after six weeks had a family in the UK willing to take them in.
Alisa, Yeva, and Anhelina arrived in the UK on the 14th April.
Both the girls now go to schools in London. Yeva said: “It’s been tough trying to settle in but me and my sister have supported each other.
“We haven’t gone out much but we have each other and that’s all we need.”
The Drop also spoke to another family, who shared their experience of moving to the UK.
Tania Mykhailichenko fled Ukraine with her two children Ivan, aged six, and Ellie, aged one.
They were taken in by hosts in Wiltshire and now live in their own private housing.
Miss Mykhailichenko talked about their experiences living in the community. She said: “Everyone here has been so accommodating, they have been lovely.”
Miss Mykhailichenko is fluent in English but her son, who is in year three, doesn’t speak a word of English.S said: “At first he didn’t want to go in because he struggled a lot.
She said: “But now he misses it when he can’t go. His English has got so much better since we arrived.
“I think we have really just been very lucky.”
Since the start of the ‘homes for Ukraine’ scheme, over 2000 Ukrainian families have declared themselves homeless and this has increased by 30% in the last month.
Samuel Blackwell, 37, co-founder of Bradford Upon-Avon Ukrainian support group shared his experiences of dealing with families who have been rehoused. He said: “It’s been a really mixed bag.
“Sometimes we find new people willing to host, but we can get unlucky and that’s when we need more support from the council.
“I think it’s getting to crunch time with these situations and we need more homes.”
If your parents would like to support a Ukrainian family, the ‘homes for Ukraine’ scheme is linked below.
