“Before the war, I had a very successful business in travel and immigration services for Ukrainians. I didn’t expect to use these skills in Ireland helping Ukrainians as refugees,” Tetiana Schevchenko says. She is speaking about her job as a duty manager at an accommodation centre for more than 300 Ukrainians in Co Meath.
In August, after moving around different parts of Ireland three times with her 15-year-old son, Schevchenko met an Irish man who offered her a job at Gormanston Park, Co Meath, where rooms for two to 10 people are now being used to house Ukrainians fleeing the war.
The sports centre there is not to be confused with Gormanston Army camp, which was used by the Government to accommodate Ukrainians temporarily in tents during the summer, she points out.
Schevchenko has worked there for almost four months, helping Ukrainians by arranging their medical cards and social welfare, or looking for jobs and alternative accommodation.
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She and her son live in the complex, but have recently found rented accommodation and will move soon.
“It’s good because while I live in the centre, if I have a day off, everybody knows my room number and they come saying, ‘Can you help, can you do this for me’,” she laughs.
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“But at the same time I know I must help them because some cannot speak English or don’t know how the systems work.
“I spent two months searching for a place. It’s nice. It has two bedrooms and it’s 20 minutes from my workplace. I have a contract for one year and I can manage it with my wages. My son is happy because it has been difficult for him moving and changing schools so much,” she says.
Her son was the reason Schevchenko made the decision to leave Ukraine earlier this year.
I love my job so much because I help my people. My son is happy because it was stressful for him moving and changing schools so much
“When this war started, at first I thought it would be over in a few weeks. I thought we could stay and wait. But my son woke up crying in the night sometimes, saying ‘Mama, save me’, and I was so worried for him and his mental health. That’s why we decided to leave Ukraine at the start of March,” she says.
“I had some friends in France and they offered for us to come stay with them for some time.
“I took my son and we went to the Romanian border to wait. My ex-husband said the war would end and we should stay, but I realised it would not end so soon.
“While we were waiting in Romania we heard from my friends that they could not come for seven or 10 days to get us. I could not wait so long. I went to the Bucharest airport with my son and there I met one volunteer who told me to try Ireland. I said: ‘What, Ireland? Dublin?’ I had never been there. It is so far from Ukraine.”
The volunteer told Schevchenko that Ireland had waived the visa requirement for Ukrainians one week previously, and advised her to “take a chance”.
The first few months were difficult, they were constantly moving, and unsure where they would end up next. Finding work was a challenge. After a job offer came up through some contacts in Belfast as a night porter in a hotel, Schevchenko tried to arrange to get permission to work in Northern Ireland.
However, soon afterwards, she was offered the job in Gormanston, which she accepted right away.
“I love my job so much because I help my people. My son is happy because it was stressful for him moving and changing schools so much. In the summer, before we came here, he told me he wanted to go back to Ukraine. But I said, ‘What will you do there, your school is damaged, the city is damaged, nobody knows when this war could come into your own home.’ Now he is in school and has made friends, and we will stay here.”
I’m very lucky because I’ve met very good Irish people, in every way, who want to help me and other Ukrainians
Schevchenko and her son are from Mykolaiv, a city in the southern part of Ukraine which is regularly targeted by Russian cluster bombs, and where more than 12,000 buildings have been destroyed.
Schevchenko’s brother remains in Ukraine and is fighting in the army. “Sometimes we hear from him, he texts mama because he has no time, but he tells her ‘Hello, I’m fine, I’m still alive’ and that’s all. That’s really difficult,” she says.
After a building near their mother’s home was bombed, Schevchenko’s brother used his two days off duty to bring their mother to the border in Romania in order for her to travel to be with Schevchenko and her son in Ireland.
It was the second time her mother had come to give life here a chance.
“I actually brought her here in the summer, before I lived in Meath, but she went home again because she cannot speak English and she just stayed in the house all the time. She told me ‘I can’t do it’. In Ukraine, she has her friends and she continues to work. I said okay and I let her go back. But at the end of October her city was bombed and I called her and told her “Mama, I can’t, I’m coming to get you’.”
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Her mother is “happy now because there are lots of other Ukrainians here in Gormanston”.
“She told me ‘Thank you, my daughter, because now I’m in a safe place, I have food three times a day, I can spend my time as I want.’ She has already found good friends. We try to make a community together – once per month we have a big meeting and we discuss concerns of Ukrainians, we discuss what the children need, and we try to organise things, for example, events for Christmas, soon. We also have English classes every day, and activities like chess and sewing.”
People from the locality have often come by with donations for refugees staying there, and one Irish woman’s kindness has stood out to Schevchenko for many weeks now, she recalls. “This woman, she orders books in the Ukrainian language and brings them in boxes for everyone to read. It’s very special – to be able to read in your own language. And she comes with them every few weeks. I can’t believe this, every time. It’s amazing.
“I’m very lucky because I’ve met very good Irish people, in every way, who want to help me and other Ukrainians.”
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or tweet @newtotheparish
