On her flight to safety, Shevchuk had to leave her mother and brother behind. “My mother is very old and my brother too young,” she explains. It was not possible to contact them for about three weeks. But lately she’s been talking to her loved ones again: “We can call, WhatsApp and also video call.”
Roll up your sleeves
For Shevchuk, working in the restaurant of the Kampeerhal Roden is also a nice distraction from the daily stream of bad news from her home country. “I watch the news every day. In the morning, in the evening and also during dinner. It’s really serious,” she looks serious.
“I clean the tables, make sandwiches and we have soups and salads,” she says enthusiastically about her work. She is used to working in the catering industry, she was also used to that before the war in Ukraine. “And the money I earn now, I want to send it to my family there,” said the newest addition to the Kampeerhal Roden.
Warm bath
The Oost-West Kontakten Foundation noticed in the people they brought back from Ukraine that they wanted to work and play sports when they arrived in the Netherlands. And so, after the long car journey to the Netherlands, an appeal was immediately made to entrepreneurs in the Noordenveld municipality. The Kampeerhal team did not have to think twice about this.
“As of 1 April, the government has drawn up new rules that make it easier for people from Ukraine to work. We are happy to use them,” says Richard Kremer of the Kampeerhal. In addition to Shevchuk, another woman is also starting this week. “Last Saturday we already had an opening barbecue with all the new people. They were there too. So we already got to know each other.”
The warm welcome and the cozy drink are in stark contrast to the war situation that Shevchuk had to leave behind in her homeland. For now, she takes comfort in the knowledge that her family is safe. And even though she is very grateful for all the help, she prefers to do what she now does in Roden again in the old, familiar Odessa. Although it will never be quite the same there.