A further update on Ukrainian families we are helping thanks to your donations. There are three families now living in Landsmeer that we are supporting as part of our charity.

Lida, Hasnain and their 2 children (Sofia and Uliana) came from Kharkiv. They had to abandon their apartment and arrived in The Netherlands only with necessary documents. The family lives now with Roland in Landsmeer, just a few kilometers north of Amsterdam. Lidia used to be an English teacher and she is planning to provide classes to other Ukrainians that came to The Netherlands.

The key person coordinating housing and support for these families is Mila, who moved from the Ukraine to The Netherlands just over six years ago. She has been super instrumental in all the efforts.

We will share a short story about the other 2 families in the coming days as well as an updated on the four families that arrive this weekend.

Dear All,

It has been a tough but good week. Whilst we are preparing for the next pick-up of three families this weekend, it is good to share some for information about Alina, her mother-in-law & five-year-old daughter.

Her husband is Ukrainian and is working in Russia. Due to the sanctions against Russia, he is no longer able to send any money to Alina. In addition, the Russian authorities do not allow him to leave Russia at this time. It has proven to be very difficult to assemble help for him as the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow is now closed. 

Due to this situation as well as loss of their house, Alina has made the decision to come to Amsterdam to stay with her sister that has moved here years ago. Alina is a copywriter in her day to day job, working on her English language skills and planning to settle down. Below a picture where the family is re-united as well as their first ice-cream in Amsterdam. Let’s hope we can reunite her with her husband soon.

Dear All,

Yesterday Guido and Anna came back from Poland with 3 families. Here some brief updates:

Galina and the three children are currently staying in Muiden. Anna is helping Galina with arranging all necessary registrations and tomorrow they are visiting Amsterdam refugee registration center to apply for government compensation and medical insurance. We will help with school registration plus we are planning to send Galina to English classes. Also, more permanent housing is required.

Another person we brought over is Svetlana, a 47-year-old legal specialist. She is now reunited with her son Max and will stay in Rotterdam. Max moved to The Netherlands nine years ago to study at Venlo University.

Tomorrow an update on Alina and her five-year-old daughter and the next steps on each of these and other families that we are able to help thanks to your donations. The next drive is Friday and return on Sunday.

Dear All,

Anna and Guido are already back in The Netherlands. They spent the night in Germany; after unexpected complications at the hotel (required 2G COVID guideline or valid QR code) they found accommodation in Ostenrode am Hartz.

They stayed with Olga,  Sergei and their four kids, who also have just arrived from Ukraine. Olga has a language courses company with 15 teachers and will help our integration initiative by providing language classes to Ukrainian people in The Netherlands. We are working on permanent housing for them in The Netherlands.

The 3 families from Kharkiv were reunited with their relatives or connected with the hosts we arranged.

Galina, 56 accompanied by her three grand-children of 9, 12 and 14 will stay in Muiden for the first two weeks. The host Arnold kindly agreed to take care of the family until we arrange final accommodation. 

Stay tuned for more updates tomorrow. Thanks again for all of the support! 

Final update for today, this was shared directly by Guido:

"We drove until 3am and then took good rest in the van. We arrived at the agreed pick-up place in Rzeszow on Monday morning. I'm impressed how well organized the temporary shelter in Rzeszow is. Hundreds of Ukrainians can spend here one to two nights to prepare for their next destination. Kudos to the amazing coordination of Polish goodwill organizations!

The four woman and four children we picked up are relatively in good spirits considering the situation. They came from city of Kharkiv (eastern part of Ukraine, it is one of the worst affected areas) and left during a brief ceasefire, in packed train. Standing literally for seventeen hours. The children are 5, 9, 12 and 13 years old and have never been in Western Europe.
Just now we stopped for lunch where the attached picture was taken."

Thanks again for all of the support!

Dear All

An afternoon update: around 13 pm CET Guido has picked-up first 3 families from Poland/Ukraine border. They are now driving back to The Netherlands. 

Let's all wish them safe travels!

Dear All-

We had another great addition to our team; Mouna, our colleague helped us during the weekend to arrange necessities for families arriving on Tuesday. Together with her lovely daughter she has done all shopping and prepared packages for each family.

Thank you Mouna and thank you everybody for your kind donations! They really make a difference!

Dear All-

It’s amazing how our initiative to help Ukrainian families is coming to fruition. This is all thanks to your generosity! We help one family at a time and every donation matters!

We have recently added 2 phenomenal Ukrainian ladies to our team: Anna and Mila. They have lived in The Netherlands with their families for more than six years. They have already brought six families in the past weeks as their own initiative. They provide housing and ongoing support to each of these families.

Today on Sunday the 13th of March, Guido and Anna are on the way to carry out our first big mission: they have organized a van, collected all the necessary supplies and will drop equipment and bicycles at a place in Germany that will host 46 Ukrainian women and children starting next week. From there the trip will continue to Rzeszow in Poland, a total distance of around 1500km. It is close to Lviv/Ukraine where we will pick-up three families that are coming directly from the war-zone and have lost their housing. Two of the families have relatives in The Netherlands which will help a lot with the integration.

We will provide you with next update on Monday as soon as we pick-up the families. In the meantime I'm attaching a couple of pictures showing loading of the van at Guido’s parent's place. Thanks to kind people like yourself we were able to purchase food and kitchen equipment for the 46 Ukrainians staying in Germany.