At St Peter’s Church, in Rock Ferry, a unique international community is beginning to form.
Amidst the wafting aroma of lasagne and the clattering of pots and pans, Olya - who fled from Ukraine just weeks ago - laughs with newly-acquired friends over a home-cooked meal. To the casual observer, she looks happy - more than 1,000 miles away from the unthinkable atrocities taking place in her homeland.
But everyone here is unified by the shared agony of having to uproot their lives because of war. Everyone is united by the fact they must start again and build a new existence in the unfamiliar place they now call home.
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Heart4Refugees is an organisation working to make that transition a little easier, offering support through ESOL classes, tailored care parcels, and a donation and distribution service to families in need. Here at St Peter’s, every Monday and Friday, ESOL service users are invited to stay to enjoy a hot meal, providing a chance to build friendships with other refugees from across Wirral.
This is only Olya’s second time at the Rock Ferry hub, but she already feels the service is helping to integrate her into the community.
She tells the ECHO: “Here, it’s like a dream. The people are really nice. They make us feel at home.”
Across the table is Dasha, who was a science teacher back in her native Odesa. Now, she is hoping to set up her own dance class in Wirral, but she is grateful for the opportunity to connect with people who understand the turmoil that the last few months has brought her.
She says: “It’s very important for us to be able to meet new people here, and for us to be together.”
The concept of Heart4Refugees was developed in February 2020 by former teachers, Kathy Vesey and Chris Branch. They supported Syrian refugees who had arrived in Wirral via the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) as well as helping more than 100 Asylum Seekers residing at the Holiday Inn hotel in Hoylake.
Kathy said: “We started off at St Luke's church in Hoylake, but when that project came to an end, we felt we’d created something really unique and special, so we wanted to carry it on. After looking for a new home in the Birkenhead area, we set up here last September. We felt like we’d filled a gap in Wirral that was really needed, looking after emotional and wellbeing support.”
In addition to the sessions in Rock Ferry, Heart4Refugees, which formally became a community interest company in 2021, runs an art based therapy group, a choir, and an early years outreach service. Kathy, who is a host for a Ukrainian family, says that she has witnessed many poignant moments in her time working for the organisation.
She told the ECHO: “There was a really touching moment when the first Ukrainian refugees started to arrive here, and I introduced one of our Syrian ladies who's been here for four years to one of the Ukrainian guests. They could only speak to each other in broken English but they held each other’s hand and just cried and hugged each other.
"It was such a ‘wow’ moment because these are two people from such different cultures, such different parts of the world, but so connected by lived experiences and the effects of war.”
Between 30 and 50 people attend the ESOL classes in Rock Ferry, but Heart4Refugees also helps around 100 households by delivering culturally appropriate hampers containing food, cleaning products and sanitary products. Vicky Evans, an executive director of the organisation, said that one service user had even claimed that Birkenhead “saved his life”.
She said: “You won’t hear many people saying that, but obviously the gentlemen meant that the people here had helped to save his life too, so that was quite special.”
As of May 23, 60,100 Ukrainian visa holders have arrived in the UK, with Heart4Refugees having seen the number of service users treble in size over recent months. But Kathy believes that more needs to be done to help refugees fleeing from other countries to settle here and become part of the local community.
She said: “I think the way that Ukrainian refugees have been dealt with with the Homes for Ukraine scheme is just fabulous and I don’t understand why we can’t have a system like that for all refugees. We just need European countries all speaking together and just show a little bit of compassion, because these people are human beings.”
To find out more about Heart4Refugees, click here.
