Fiona4Ukraine

On Thursday morning an exhausted young mother and child landed at Manchester Airport in Northern England, having made the long journey from Chernihiv, Northern Ukraine. They are guests of wonderful sponsors (under the UK's Homes For Ukraine scheme)  in Trawden , the village where I lived before moving to Ukraine. Chernihiv, like Kharkiv, is close to the Russian border and experiences frequent bombings. As well, its inhabitants have the collective traumatic memory of surviving Russian occupation at the beginning of the full invasion, in 2022. Myroslava ( Myro for short) was born during this terrifying period, in a basement. Her mother has made the difficult decision to leave home and family behind so that Myro can have a life of peace, stability and relative normality, until there is peace in Ukraine. Мир ( Myr ) means peace in Ukrainian. I try to imagine how strange and different it will feel to experience, not only the peace and quiet, but a tiny village with steep, narrow r...

  In writing to us about the Hell's Kitchen Halloween party last Friday, Liuda gave us a little history. In 2022 (the first year of Russia's full invasion), the Hell's Kitchen Team didn't celebrate any holidays until the fall (autumn) because they simply didn't feel like it. Then, unexpectedly, volunteers got together for Halloween and had such a fantastic time that, in the years that followed, people started asking, in advance, " A re we celebrating Halloween this year?" So , for "Hell's Kitchen, Halloween became a symbolic event, as well as an opportunity to take a few hours off from everyday problems and have fun. The time, attention and care that went into the decorations and themed food were incredible. The party lived up to my expectations, having attended last year's, and my costume (much the same as last year) showed that witches don't age! Recently, my volunteer friend, Jos, and I had the privilege and fun of being members of a j...