A family of refugees fleeing war-torn Ukraine, who are currently living with a host family in England, has welcomed a baby boy. Mum Iryna Tyshchenko gave birth to little Alex on September 20.
The Tyshchenko's are a family of five. They are part of the arrivals this year who travelled to the UK to seek refuge after Putin's illegal war in Ukraine left them with no choice but to make the heartbreaking decision to leave their home.
Mum Iryna is hopeful about a brighter future for little Alex and his older sisters. The Tyshchenko's are now living a life with a host family in Tarporley, Cheshire - a world away from the war-torn country they had to leave, Cheshire Live reports.
The heartrending decision to flea their home country came when Iryna was pregnant and looking out the window of their apartment in Kherson one day. She witnessed an explosion at an airport nearby and she and her husband Yevhen feared for the safety of their family, including their unborn child and their daughters Anya, 19, Kira, 14, and Veronika, 11.
They grabbed all the possessions they could squeeze into the family car and set off. They brought their beloved two pet cats too, along with just a few suitcases, and travelled across Europe to the UK via Poland.
They stayed in Poland for around a month and at one point pregnant Iryna and her family were living in basic accommodation which included sleeping on mattresses on the floor. They finally arrived in the UK in May and have been staying with a host family in Tarporley.
With their daughters attending the nearby high school, some sense of normalcy has been restored to the Tyshchenko's lives. In Tarporley, Iryna, Yevhen and their daughters were able to prepare for the arrival of baby Alex, who was born four months after arriving in the UK.
On the day we met Alex he was wearing an adorable little outfit like a suit with a bow tie. Proud mum Iryna is acutely aware of how very precious her loved ones and the little bundle held in her arms really are.
She is relieved to see her family in a place of safety and that Anya, Kira and Veronika can all continue their education, learning English as they go. Iryna was the only family member who was fluent in English when they first arrived in the UK but they have all been attending classes at nearby Tarporley Community Centre.
The classes are run by Dr Ann Williams from Tarporley Rotary Club, who was also inspired by meeting the family and by Alex's arrival to get involved in organising a fundraising concert in aid of the children's hospitals of Ukraine. Iryna spoke of the day back in Ukraine when she knew her family's lives would change forever.
She said: "It was the morning and I was drinking my coffee in our apartment. I looked out of the window and could see a bomb had exploded at the airport.
"We decided not to wait any longer but to go. We took the girls, our cats and a few suitcases and got into our car and left.
"It was a long trip. We travelled in a minibus across Europe, going through Germany and France and Melissa from our host family came to pick us up.
"We got in touch with them through a site to link up people with host families and they are really lovely people. We are very lucky to know them."
When asked what it was like to uproot your family and move to a completely new country, Iryna said: "It was difficult. For me it was a bit easier but for other members of my family it's been difficult to come somewhere new and to learn English.
"The girls are teenagers or nearly a teenager in Veronika's case and it's difficult for them to be so far away from their friends and the activities they enjoyed doing. Kira is a professional ballroom dancer and it would be good for her to be able to resume this.
"Kira plays guitar and drums and has a music teacher and she enjoys practising when she gets home from school. They have made friends here but it is hard for them."
She added that they doted on their little brother, although they were happy to hand him back to mum when he cried. It's a time of celebration with the arrival of baby Alex but it is bittersweet as they worry about loved ones still in Ukraine.
Iryna said she had offered her 75-year-old father the chance to accompany them when they fled Ukraine but he had chosen to stay. She added: "I asked if he wanted to come and he said he wanted to stay.
"I would love to have the opportunity to visit him but it doesn't seem possible at the moment. In terms of moving back there, even if the war finished it would be difficult to live and work there and raise our kids as the war has destroyed our city.
"Many buildings have been destroyed and I am not sure we still have our apartment. There's unlikely to be anything left due to robbers. "
She is also anxious for her husband to find work to enable the family to eventually find a place of their own to live. He is currently having difficulty finding work as a HGV driver as his Ukrainian licence means he is not allowed to do this in the UK.
"He can't just change his driving licence. He worked for a Polish company and was working in Germany, France and the UK on a rota but yet he cannot work as a driver here in the UK" Iryna said.
"We are here until the spring. Time is going fast.
"We can stay in the UK for three years but my husband needs to find a job and it's difficult to get places to rent. We may go to Poland."
Speaking about her experiences of having a baby in a new country, Iryna said she had a warm welcome and plenty of support from the midwifery team. She was happy to have been able to have a water birth at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
She said if she hadn't come to the UK to safety with her family then she would also have been worried about access to proper medical care for the birth due to the destruction caused by war and the damage to hospitals and supplies of medicine and equipment. Iryna and her family are settling into the new community which they currently call home.
Anya is studying at Cheshire College South and West in Chester, while Kira and Veronika attend nearby Tarporley High School. In a poignant moment as we leave Iryna's home in Tarporley, she says her son is the new generation and she wants a peaceful happy future for him and all of her family, pointing out that with his smart outfit Alex could even be prime minister one day.
Dr Ann Williams, chair of the international committee of the Rotary Club of Tarporley and District and a language teacher, said she was delighted to have seen the warm welcome and support given to a number of families from Ukraine living in Tarporley. She added that she was enjoying putting on English classes to support them.
She said she hoped many people would come along to attend the fundraising concert and to raise money for children's hospitals in the war-torn country. Dr Williams added: "We are spending a lot of time teaching Ukrainian refugees about our language and culture which they have wholly embraced.
"It’s now time for us to enjoy learning more about the culture of their beautiful country at the same time as raising desperately needed funds for sick children in Ukraine’s war-torn hospitals.”
The concert, called The Spirit of Ukraine, is an evening of opera, poetry and art from Ukraine, and takes place at Storyhouse in Chester at 7pm on Friday, November 25. Tickets are available from the Storyhouse box office.
It has been organised by Tarporley Rotary Club in partnership with the Ukrainian Cultural Association in the UK and features actor Maryam d'Abo, world-renowned operatic stars Elena Xanthoudakis-Soprano and Rozanna Madylus and Ukrainian composer and pianist Alla Sirenko.
