News from Emmaus
The Ukrainian family at Emmaus has now been in the UK for 14 months. In that time the whole family has made great strides with help from the whole team and as Martin Clitheroe, Emmaus Village Carlton volunteer said: “I cannot emphasise too much how important the support St Andrews has given has been in helping them to cope with life in a new country.”
We are all celebrating with the group as both the younger members of the family have successfully completed their studies and passed their exams.
“The two of them have now left college and they (and we at Emmaus) are very grateful to St Andrews for the financial help which made it possible to fund their bus passes throughout the academic year,” said Martin. As part of their course work, they both did work experience here with us and spent 50 hours volunteering in the bistro at Emmaus so they were given the basic skills to help them enter the world of work. And it has worked as it’s double congratulations here as they have both already found jobs in the hospitality industry. Another member of the family that arrived fluent in American, has been working in pubs – initially in Carlton but for the majority of the time in Harrold. “With the enthusiastic support of a would-be donor to Emmaus, we were able to provide her with an electric bike, which has much assisted their journeys between Carlton and Harrold,” continued Martin. “Over the 14 months in the UK she has made two trips back to see her fiancée in Kyev. Unfortunately, her visits back home always seem to have coincided with Russia steeping up its attacks on Kyev. So, if not happily, she has been relieved on each occasion to return to the calm of Carlton.”
Another member of the group that arrived at Emmaus with very little English has been attending daily lessons which, with the financial support throughout the year of many donors including St Andrews, has enabled her to make steady improvements to her language skills. She has been working as a cleaner in a pub in Harrold and has been able to travel back to Kyev to see her husband once. The other adult in the group has also been attending the daily language lessons and has also been working as a cleaner at Sharnbrook Academy. As for the future, it looks increasingly likely that the war will, sadly, continue for some time to come. Three of the group are returning home for a visit on August 15. Two of the group will return to Kyev while the third will travel to her home town that is only 40 minutes from the current front line.
We hope and pray that they will all return to us safely.
Martin Clitheroe
Emmaus Village Carlton