Galina and the Children have finished their first semester at a Dutch school! Attached picture of Galina’s grandson Maksym running during last week's sports event. Their stay at Petra’s place in Amsterdam Oost has ended however, we found new location in Amsterdam starting on the 20th of July. We cannot thank Petra enough for making her place available and helping to find a new location.

We are closing this period with arranging financial support for the housing of two families and providing more bikes to another family now accustomed to the Dutch bike culture. In observation of the holiday period, no new activities will be deployed until September, outside of responding to help requests from the families in our network. 

Best- Gosia, Guido, Vincent & Tanya

Dear All,

We continue to make progress on integrating our Ukrainian families into Dutch society. A couple of weeks ago we designed a dashboard that helps us with tracking several areas we find key for our families. Among others we make sure each family has a local “buddy”/a person to talk to, permanent place to live (6 months +), completes government registration & financial support application, we also help with arranging schooling for children and job search. We currently have 17 families with an average “integration” score of 93%.

One area that continues to be a challenge and our focus is finding permanent accommodation. We are currently looking for accommodation for Galina and her 3 grandchildren and Olga, her husband and four children. We would greatly appreciate all help with finding accommodation for our families; if you are aware of available apartments or houses please contact us at [email protected].

The success story we would like to share with you is about Kirill and his wife Tanya. They arrived with their 3 babies at the beginning of April and at this point we consider them fully settled in The Netherlands. We have helped them to find a permanent place to stay and very recently, Kirill took on the job at food processing company in Landsmeer.  He has also started volunteering at a municipal accommodation facility for Ukrainians in Landsmeer. Wishing you all the best Kirill and Tanya!

Dear All,

Our charity mission is to help Ukrainian families establish new life in The Netherlands. Since April we have joined forces with Olga, a teacher who provides English classes to Ukrainians. Thanks to these classes, our Ukrainian families find it easier to integrate into Dutch communities and have a better chance at fulfilling their goals and dreams for new life. English classes are vital, as they improve chances to pursue a better job or in some cases previous occupation. This is also our way of supporting Olga whose dream is to re-establish her English teaching school in The Netherlands. Here is a couple words from Olga about the school and her students:

“My name is Olga. And I am from Ukraine. I used to travel a lot before the war, and I know how important the language is. When my family and I moved to the Netherlands, I saw it with my own eyes.

I am thankful to the Foundation that it could organize English classes for Ukrainians in the Netherlands. I am sure that using our unique ElSol system the students can start speaking English fluently and they can master the language with pleasure.

So, 11 elementary students, who couldn’t speak English at all or knew a few words from school, after 12 classes have already started looking for a job. They are attentive at the lesson, do their homework and take part in all the activities of our school besides our lessons. 4 students have a bit higher level. They want to hone their English skills anyway in order to get a good job with their diploma. 

I am sure they all have a chance. And of course, I am grateful to the Foundation for an opportunity to work online and take care of my four kids. It’s hard to start a new life especially if you had everything, a house, a business, a future. At the end of the lesson, I am used to saying that everything will be fine. We, Ukrainians, are strong. All the world is helping us. We can’t let our country down. So, learn English.”