Welcome Centre Director: “Keep your hearts and doors open to Ukrainians”

The director of a new Ukrainian Welcome Centre in central London has urged Britons to keep their hearts and doors open to Ukrainians who are arriving in the UK fleeing the war in their homeland. Andriy Marchenko talks to us about the Centre, based at the cathedral of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family near Bond Street in central London. It provides a single point of contact for essential information for arrival, settling and long-term living in the UK and is a partnership between the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family of London and the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain.“ Many of these people have come through a lot of hardship before ending up in the United Kingdom. Many have been through a lot and they tend to be stressed out, they tend to be disoriented sometimes and we aim to help them, to signpost them to the right services in the UK, to give them correct advice so that they know exactly what to do – what their next move should be in order to succeed and, eventually, to thrive in the United Kingdom.” ukrainianwelcomecentre.org