A mum has been brought to tears by the kindness of strangers after fleeing from the sound of bombs in Ukraine.
Lesia Kondratiuk left her native Odessa with her children back in March, and was able to move in with a host family in Neston, Wirral. The mum-of-two was forced to leave family back in Ukraine as she feared the conflict in her homeland would have a devastating impact on her kids.
Lesia is now committed to giving back to the community that has welcomed her with open arms by volunteering at a local refugee hub.
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She told Cheshire Live: "Myself and the kids came over early in March. In our home in Odessa we woke up at 5am on February 24 and we heard bombs. I woke up and thought 'oh god'. I was afraid for the kids' mental health. I didn't want them to hear the sound of the bombing.
"We stayed in Odessa for a few weeks but then we decided to go to Poland and met very kind people there. We then heard that England was giving visas and it was a dream to come here. The family who have opened their home to us are brilliant. They have given us better rooms than they have!”
Lesia has now been joined in the UK by husband Oleksii, who was working as a lorry driver in Italy when the war broke out. The family are settling into life in Wirral with children Veronika, 16, and Vadym, 19, attending school in nearby Chester.
Lesia, who is hoping to work as a translator for other Ukrainian refugees in Wirral, has started volunteering at the Refugee hub in Brook Street, in Neston, every Friday.
She said: "I wanted to give something back and to be useful and so I decided to volunteer with the Refugee Assist hub here in Neston. You can choose anything you need there. When I called in one day, I noticed that some of the clothes needed sorting and so I said 'if you want, I have free time and can help you'.
"It was nice to be there and to talk to others. I've got quite good English and I thought I could come sometimes to support others coming from Ukraine as they are either too shy or don't speak much English.”
She added: "We are so thankful to all the people who are helping us. It's making us cry as we get a lot of support."
The Refugee Assist group is led by father-of-two Chris Young, 44, from Little Sutton, alongside community hub co-ordinators Penny McCulloch and Peter Stowe. The hub offers items such as toiletries, clothing, shoes and toys, as well as practical support to take refugees to English classes, for example.
Chris, a machine operator at Tata Steel in Deeside, was spurred on to set up the group in August, after watching the harrowing TV footage from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. He created a Facebook support group and it grew from there, with his older son, who is 16, also volunteering.
He said: "It's gone from strength to strength and we've had nothing but positive feedback, including from our MP, Justin Madders and local councillors. It's one massive team effort really.
"There is a core group of about 11 of us working for Refugee Assist and we have a private Facebook group with around 950 members. Our hub is up and running and it's great. We open every Friday morning and then anything else is by appointment.
"We are a community group which we are starting the process of registering as a community interest company. We help any refugees in any way we can to settle within the community.
"We find out what they need, drive them to English classes and we also help hosts before their guests arrive, helping them to do things like registering for the Homes for Ukraine scheme and visas. I popped into the hub the other day and three Ukrainian ladies were volunteering. Things are just falling into place."
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