Private bathroom and psychological help more important than expected at the daycare

It is quiet in the long corridors with stained glass work of the Zwanenhof, a former monastery at the Twente Zenderen. Since March 2022, ninety Ukrainian refugees have been staying here, due to the need for reception, the municipality recently asked to scale up to 110. There is a sign with ‘guest room’ in front of each door and there are shoes. In a room, a volunteer teaches English on four Ukrainian people in their twenties – on the board is a gallows game with the word ‘Spacious’. In the kitchen, five women, tucked their hair away under a cloth, a supper of chicken, rice and mushrooms.

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On the second floor, Mariia Bolduire (26) shares a room with her husband, who is a truck driver. She shows a photo of the morning’s view: grazing Scottish Highlanders against a foggy forest edge. Her mother, who works in a restaurant, live in the adjacent room, and her father, one of the three Ukrainians who guarded the building at night. Her sister, Student Marketing at Saxion University of Applied Sciences, has her own room.

More than 3.5 years after she fled because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mariia Bolduve lives, just like About 127,000 Other Ukrainians, still in the Netherlands. The extent to which Ukrainians are guided to work, have their own facilities such as a bathroom or kitchen and have a chat with Dutch people, is crucial for their position on the labor market, mental health and how much they feel at home. This is apparent from a study of the Scientific Research and Data Center (WODC) published Thursday on behalf of the Ministry of Justice and Security.

Homeless

Ukrainians have the right to reception and education and can work directly. This is determined in the European Directive of Temporary Protection, which was recently extended to March 2027. Some Ukrainians found a house or living with family or a host family. The majority is dependent on municipal emergency shelter. Around 98,000 people stay there. Almost from the start of the invasion, the Netherlands has a shortage of beds. Last week the Red Cross announced that around four hundred Ukrainians were homeless in August. Municipalities also complain that the deficit increases and the situation is no longer kept. Outgoing Minister of Housing Mona Keijzer (BBB) ​​suggests as a solution that working men themselves must arrange shelter.

The number of host families is falling and the number of people who find a regular home from the daycare is limited. The WODC concludes that Ukrainians are still “long -term” on emergency shelter. To improve the well -being and the position of Ukrainian refugees, “good quality care” is important. This also ensures that they can “participate more and contribute to society.”

A representative group of 3,460 Ukrainians who fled to the Netherlands between 2022 and 1 July 2023 participated in the WODC study. Initially, the researchers thought that there were mainly differences between people in emergency shelter and in host families. That is not the case. “The type of daycare makes less than the characteristics of that shelter,” says researcher Kasper Otten. “Sometimes the idea is that the most important thing is that Ukrainians are taken care of and that it does not matter how that daycare is done. Our research shows that the quality of care really matters.”

Mental health

Otten points to the mental health of Ukrainian refugees. Previously WODC research shows that 45 percent of them are struggling with psychologicalcompared to 14 percent of the total population. Ukrainians who have more own facilities (and therefore privacy) and who receive ’emotional support’ from professionals feel mentally better than those who do not have.

More than two in three Ukrainian refugees worked in paid employment on 1 May, showed from Thursday published CBS figures.

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Moreover, the research contradicts the suggestion that good care ensures that Ukrainians want to stay in the Netherlands. “For both the short and long term, it appears that the differences in reception do not play a role in residential intentions,” writes the knowledge center. The reception improves “is therefore not at odds with government policy that has the temporality of Ukrainians in the Netherlands as a starting point.”

Watch fish

At the daycare in Zenderen, they experience the importance of things as a private bathroom and a chat with a Dutch volunteer. But even then it can sometimes be too many words. In such cases, Marriia Boldueva has her brightly lit aquarium with shrimp. “If there is too much in my head, I will be quietly by looking at the fish,” she says.

Bolduire lived in Zaporizja, a city in the southeast of Ukraine. She sang in a choir and worked as a music teacher. In the early morning of February 24, 2022, the start of the large -scale Russian invasion, her husband said that they had to leave ‘as quickly as possible. Bolduve fled to Poland with her mother and sister. Her husband and father followed later. Through an acquaintance they ended up in a bus to the Netherlands. The bus drove to Zenderen. “I really didn’t care where we went, as long as there was a bed and a shower.”

A close community arose at the reception location. Lunch and dinner take place in the refectory, the old dining room of the monastery, also birthdays and holidays are often celebrated together. “We all had to leave our house, now we try to make a home as well as possible,” says Bolduire. “If there is terrible news, for example about rocketing impacts on KYIV, we cry together or are we quiet.”

Bolduire founded a choir in the daycare, but because of work, hobbies and school, nobody had time for rehearsals. Boldueva now has a paid job as a coordinator of the daycare, she serves as a source of information for the besognes of other Ukrainians. That work gives her “strength,” says Bolduveueva, “I am young and is full of energy.”

“The big problem is our temporary residence status,” says Bolduire. She is amazed by the nonchalance with which the Dutch are planning their vacation a year in advance “We live by the day and are always dependent on changing rules to stay here or travel. The Netherlands cannot offer us any guarantees, sometimes I drive it crazy.”

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Sunflowers

In the garden of the monastery, Ronald Helder (54) overlooks a row of sunflowers in the evening sun, “the national symbol of Ukraine.” Sunflowers also remind him of his two deceased children – “that can’t be a coincidence”.

Clear is the healthcare entrepreneur who runs the Zwanenhof. He has nothing but praise for the Ukrainians and the many volunteers from the neighborhood. But about how the government arranges the shelter? “It is a struggle. I get 44 euros per Ukrainian a day to pay everything: from food to waste tax. I know few entrepreneurs who want to do it for this price.”

With sad eyes, clearly looks at large -scale care on ships and in hotels. “You just know that abuses and riots are taking place there. It is ridiculous that entrepreneurs can take out the situation and conclude contracts with municipalities for that kind of shelter.” With more financing and certainty, the quality of the daycare would improve, he implies.

Clear walks to the monastery chapel. Under the white vaults he tells how Tamara, who in three years became a pivotal figure in the maintenance of the garden, recently returned to Ukraine. “She was no longer full of living so far from her family. After her departure my wife and I felt how we got attached to everyone, part of the family suddenly lost.”

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