{"id":10783,"date":"2023-06-20T12:09:36","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T12:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/?p=10783"},"modified":"2025-03-05T11:02:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T11:02:59","slug":"sanctuary-for-ukrainians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/06\/20\/sanctuary-for-ukrainians\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanctuary For Ukrainians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Polly Vacher has been many different things during her life: aviator, music teacher, physiotherapist, charity fundraiser and Reading graduate to name a few. But the one constant theme has been helping people and, for the past year, Polly and her village have been hosting Ukrainian refugees.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Polly
Photo Credit: John Dunbar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022 the whole world was shocked. Polly, who had links with Ukraine following a holiday there in 2013 \u2013 when she and a group of 25 friends travelled around the country and had \u201cthe most amazing time\u201d \u2013 instantly knew she had to do something to help.<\/p>\n

Polly recalled: \u201cI exchanged emails with a friend, Jonathan, who had organised our trip to Ukraine in 2013. We both agreed we had to do something and Jonathan knew six Ukrainian lawyers in London who had a list of over 400 refugees who needed housing in the UK. So I sent an email round our village asking if anybody would be prepared to host a Ukrainian family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polly shared how the action she and Jonathan instigated grew into a huge effort from across her village of North Moreton, Oxfordshire, to help those in need.<\/p>\n

Community spirit<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Polly said the response from her village was phenomenal. She shared: \u201cThis village is quite small with 157 houses and approximately 350 inhabitants, but we had 18 families offer to host just like that. It was unbelievable. So we went to meet with the lawyers to arrange everything and match up the families.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOur village is incredibly community-spirited and friendly. For example, one man responded to the call-out for hosts by offering to move in with his father \u2013 who lived locally \u2013 and giving up his whole house for a family.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“Another family has a converted barn which they usually let out, but they offered the barn as accommodation. However, it was unfurnished so we asked the village for help and within 24 hours the whole place was completely furnished \u2013 absolutely everything was provided for. That gives you some idea as to what a great village this is and why it\u2019s very special to live here.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Polly explained that actually getting the refugees into the UK wasn\u2019t that simple as there were Home Office regulations to navigate.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThe sudden influx of refugees took the Home Office by surprise and the whole system was complete shambles. Every Ukrainian needed a visa to come here, but in some instances only the mother was granted one and in other instances only the child was granted one. Luckily the lawyers in London helped us fill in the visa forms \u2013 it took us about nine hours in total. I then enlisted the help of our local MP and a member of the House of Lords \u2013 whom I\u2019d known as a student \u2013 to help get the visas over the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the community<\/strong><\/h4>\n

North Moreton has loved welcoming the Ukrainian families who have quickly become a part of the village.<\/p>\n

\"Polly<\/p>\n

Polly said: \u201cThe families didn\u2019t know each other before they arrived, but they\u2019ve all made friends and settled in well. We had 50 Ukrainians with us originally \u2013 we now have about 42 as some have returned home \u2013 and they were very keen to thank us. They threw the most enormous party on our recreation ground, with Ukrainian dancing, singing, food, drink, games and gave us all the most wonderful time and they have arranged many more parties since.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe were always a friendly village but actually the Ukrainians have brought us even closer together. They join in with village life and support anything that\u2019s going on and have really become part of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Traumatic experiences<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Despite their smiles and energy, Polly emphasises that there isn\u2019t one Ukrainian family in this village who hasn\u2019t experienced trauma. She said:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s distressing to hear what they\u2019ve been through and what they are still going through.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cOur first family had the house next door to them bombed, following which their grandfather died of a heart attack. They couldn\u2019t get to the cemetery because the Russians had blocked the road so they had to bury him in the garden. They then had to drive across fields to escape. The current family living with us are in regular contact with their husband and father \u2013 who is still in Ukraine \u2013 and a few weeks ago a bomb landed almost in their back garden. It\u2019s very distressing for them and a horrible situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing these tales puts everything into perspective \u2013 we\u2019re living in a safe country that has water and warmth, and although times are harder today with the cost of living crisis, it\u2019s nothing compared to what is happening in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\n

“Throughout all of this each of the Ukrainians in our village remains strong. It\u2019s so inspiring \u2013 I rarely see any tears, they\u2019re always positive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You can always do something<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Polly is no stranger to helping others, having dedicated much of her life to fundraising \u2013 from raising \u00a352,000 for the MS Society<\/a> completing a \u2018Donkathon\u2019 (where Polly drove her two donkeys from South Oxfordshire to North Wales), to completing sponsored skydives, and flying around the world solo twice to raise money for Flying Scholarships for Disabled People<\/a>. Polly said:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMy mantra is that you can always do something. Not everyone can save the world, but we can all do a bit, and this is me doing my bit that I\u2019m able to do. There\u2019s no excuse for doing nothing, ever.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cMy motivation to help the Ukrainians stems from me putting myself in their shoes. I think what if this was happening to me? What if the house next door was bombed and an aggressor came through my village with tanks. How would I feel? I can\u2019t believe this is happening today, these people are being treated abominably, these are heinous crimes taking place. Children are seeing things they should never experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel so strongly that we\u2019re so lucky \u2013 we live in peace with the freedom to do and say what we want without the threat of being jailed or killed for doing so. It\u2019s a horrendous situation and it\u2019s so important to me to do what I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discover how else the University of Reading community is supporting refugees<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polly Vacher has been many different things during her life: aviator, music teacher, physiotherapist, charity fundraiser and Reading graduate to name a few. But the one constant theme has been helping people and, for the past year, Polly and her village have been hosting Ukrainian refugees. When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022 the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":10786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[165,54,150,123,64,27,34,73,57,62,47],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSanctuary For Ukrainians - Connected<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reading graduate and aviator, Polly Vacher, shares how she, and her village, have been hosting Ukrainian refugees for the past year.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/06\/20\/sanctuary-for-ukrainians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sanctuary For Ukrainians - Connected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reading graduate and aviator, Polly Vacher, shares how she, and her village, have been hosting Ukrainian refugees for the past year.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/06\/20\/sanctuary-for-ukrainians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Connected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-20T12:09:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-05T11:02:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/06\/Polly-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"juliasmalley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"juliasmalley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/06\/20\/sanctuary-for-ukrainians\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/06\/20\/sanctuary-for-ukrainians\/\",\"name\":\"Sanctuary For Ukrainians - 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