Ukrainian refugees in West Friesland for three months: how are they doing?

In mid-March Nicole Schaft and Nico Klaver welcomed the Moroz family. Consisting of grandma, father, mother, daughters Anna and Maria, not to mention the two hamsters, Chip and Dale. They come from Kiev and arrive in Wogmeer via via after a journey of four days. To rest, initially. The feeling is twofold. They are far away from the war, but also far away from everything they hold dear.

The family lives in the renovated canteen, which is fully equipped. Nicole sees that the family has found its place, despite the difficult circumstances. Father Grigoriy works for Enza Zaden and regularly goes back and forth to Ukraine to resume his work. The mother works two days a week as a hairdresser in Alkmaar and the grandmother has a job at the Braas bakery in Obdam. Was it difficult to get jobs? “No, the jobs are screaming”, Nicole sees.

Anna (11) and Maria (5) are still at school in Zuidermeer. Nicole: “Learning the language is difficult. Our children now speak more words in Ukrainian than they do in Dutch. Anna speaks good English, which makes a difference.”

She is not bothered by her ‘neighbours’. “We live separately, which makes a difference. If we had really taken them in, it might have been a different story. They hope to be able to go home in September or October, but that of course depends on the course of the war.”

We previously followed Anna and Maria at primary school in Zuidermeer. Text continues below the video.

Thanks to Kim Schouten and Fione Janssen from Westwoud, two Ukrainian families have had a place to relax for almost four months in the empty cafe De Lindeboom, on Doctor Wijtemalaan in Westwoud. The Westwoude friends are neighbors of each other and both did not hesitate for a moment to take action. In the initial phase, the initiators sometimes ran into serious problems, but now things are going very well with both Ukrainian families.

Text continues below the photo.

“They live their lives and if necessary we fly in,” says Fione Janssen from Westwoud. The initiator can still remember the initial phase well. “One of the families did not have the correct papers at the time. As a result, they were not entitled to living allowance and the father could not go to the dentist, for example. Fortunately, this has all been resolved and the father no longer suffers from his teeth,” laughs Janssen.

Earlier we visited the two Ukrainian families, who still have shelter in café De Lindeboom. Text continues below the video.

Integrate

Both families are doing their utmost to adapt and so far, according to Janssen, they have succeeded remarkably well. “The eldest Ukrainian sisters organized a surprise party for me last week. I was completely amazed and I think it is really special to see them doing their best to become part of the community.”