A plea from our friend Guy Paterson

Dear Friends

Many of you will already have been enormously generous to the people of Ukraine. The purpose of this note is to encourage anyone who can to host a Ukrainian family in their home.

We have signed up to Ukrainedorset.org https://www.ukrainedorset.org/ which through the dedication of Roland and Eyzie Potts has been coordinating the hosting of Ukrainian families across North Dorset/SW Wiltshire/South Somerset. News of a nexus of Ukrainian families arriving in our area has reached the refugee community across the frontier states and Ukrainedorset.org has been deluged with applications from Ukrainian families surviving in dire temporary accommodation. If any of you are minded to help do please contact Roland and Eyzie at info@ukrainedorset.org.

We are sponsoring a family of four Ukrainians who have yet to arrive as a result of the mindlessly slow UK Visa department. The process is not simple: register as a Sponsor with UK Government and then become matched with a Ukrainian family through Ukrainedorset.org. You then complete online Visa Applications for each member of the family and wait (and wait) for the civil service to issue a visa. In the meantime your local authority will contact you to carry out background checks on you as sponsors and to inspect your home. But in the end it will be worth all the hassle to provide comfort and shelter to the innocent victims of the despicable Putin.

Best wishes

Guy

Please, please, if you know of anyone in your area who might be able to help, let us know. We can help with visa applications and anything else you might be concerned about. The important thing is to get these families settled in the UK.