She thought her fundraising campaign for Ukrainian refugees in Poland, which she started a day after the war broke out, would yield a few bags of stuff. But it exceeded all her expectations. The shop of the Haarlem-Ukrainian Anna Roelofs-Ivanchenko was filled to the brim in no time. She even had to move to a larger location twice and now she has set up a day center for refugees with a whole team in the former V&D building in Haarlem.
Anna started the campaign out of desperation, because she could not get her own family out of Ukraine in time. She got help from a few Haarlem women from the start. They are now part of the core team of the Rasom foundation, which they have set up to make the campaign run as smoothly as possible. Rasom means ‘together’ in Ukrainian, because from day one countless volunteers, Haarlemmers and refugee Ukrainians help.
Anna is busy every minute of the day and meanwhile she keeps in daily contact with her family in her home country. Reporter Kimberley Luske of NH Nieuws/Haarlem105 followed Anna and her team from the moment the war broke out.