A Ukrainian refugee family has arrived in Bigbury after fleeing from Ukrainian capital Kyiv, which has faced many attacks as the Russia-Ukraine war rages on. Olga Sirenko arrived in Bigbury with her daughter Arina, her son Arsenii and her mother Svetlana on October 5th. Arina and Arsenii will be attending Modbury Primary School, and Olga and Svetlana will be looking for local employment once they have settled in. They are being sponsored by Henry and Louise Wainwright, and many donations have already been received as clothes, school uniforms, toys and other forms of help are offered by the local community.

Support has been flooding in for the family as local people rally around to help in whatever way they can. However, Mr Wainwright has warned that the “family have many challenges coming to Britain as we approach winter”. He has set up a Just Giving page, which aims to “help them find their feet until they can get a job locally” by raising £1,500. They have already reached over £600 of their target. On the page, Mr Wainwright explains how they first got into contact with Olga and her family back in June 2022 through the charity Cambridge4ukraine. He says the family “were living in Kyiv and desperate to escape the daily air raid sirens and rocket attacks”. Eventually their visas were issued, “under the British Government’s ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme” in September, and they arrived in the UK “with only two suitcases carrying what they could for four people”.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, families have lived in constant fear of missile attacks as thousands of civilians have been killed as a result of the conflict. Many local communities have been rallying around refugees fleeing the country, as locals have for the Sirenko family, and ensuring they have a warm welcome. Mr Wainwright describes how Olga’s son Arsenii “keeps asking his mother when will the sirens go off”, which stands as testament for the unimaginable horrors this family have had to endure.

The Governments “home for Ukraine” scheme saw the first refugees arrive back in April, and has been used as a way of housing families fleeing the war-torn country. So far, 189,900 Ukraine scheme visas have been issued. and there have been 179 arrivals in the South Hams. Back in April, Cllr James McInned commented on the “the amazing response across Devon to help people in need, through donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, offers of support, and people stepping forward to host refugees,” so it is heartening to see people continuing to assist those affected by this war in any way they can.

Both Olga and her mother are eager to find local part-time jobs once the children are settled, but if you would like to support them until they can find a local place of work, visit the Just Giving page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/sirenko-family. If the funding target is met, any excess donations will be given to The Kingsbridge Foodbank to support other Ukrainian families locally.