The Ukrainian Sunday School in Amstelveen has acquired an important function as a result of the war in Ukraine. Parents with children at the school not only look to each other for support, but the school has also become an aid organization.
Ukrainians find support at Sunday school – NH Nieuws
“It’s really different at the moment,” says Vitaliy Tonenchuk of the Ukrainian Foundation in the Netherlands, which provides Sunday school in the Westend community center. Everyone sympathizes and is concerned. Some families have relatives or friends who live in regions that are still being bombed.”
Vitaliy is currently working day and night organizing humanitarian aid. The Ukrainian school now has 60 students, but there is already a waiting list of 20 children who have fled Ukraine. Vitaliy hopes to be able to move to a larger space soon.
“I follow all the news and see how life goes on here. I wanted to scream in the street”
There is a great sense of community in Sunday school. There is hugging and talking. Kseniia Ignatovych gets tears in her eyes when she talks about her family that has been left behind. Because of their age, Grandpa and Grandma can’t even leave and try to keep themselves safe in an air raid shelter, but they can’t always reach it in time either.
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It is crucial for her that she can tell her story. “I follow all the news and see how life goes on here. I wanted to scream in the street,” she says. “I feel a lot of support at my son’s school, but also from the neighbors. Everyone has been touched by this situation.”
“We have to help each other. With bed and food, but also by talking to each other,” emphasizes Mykhailo Dobrin, who has lived in the Netherlands for more than ten years. Like almost everyone else present, he receives refugees from Ukraine in his house. Kseniia also takes a father home with his daughter today. They were on holiday in the Netherlands and can’t go back now.
This is how you can help
GIRO555 is currently active to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine, but also Ukrainians in the Netherlands Foundation commit to this. They have made an overview of return points where resources can be brought and also know exactly what is needed. Money donations are used for humanitarian aid and education in Ukrainian schools in the Netherlands.
Refugees are already being taken care of in hotels in Amsterdam, but in the rest of the security region the Ukrainians are mainly taken care of at acquaintances’ homes. Each security region must realize 1,000 reception places in the short term.
“In Amstelveen we don’t have a lot of people who currently need a place,” explains Mayor Tjapko Poppens. “But I do take into account that that will come in the near future and we are prepared for that.” He cannot say anything about specific reception locations yet.