by John Hawryluk (Project Coordinator, Ukraine)
When Scotland opened its arms to offer safe refuge to 3,500 Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war, Edinburgh’s voluntary sector responded – providing a Warm Scots Welcome. Working closely with public sector partners, including the Council and Scottish Government, our sector mobilised to provide hot meals, Ukrainian language mental health support, English language lessons and other key services needed in the first few weeks of arrival.
Last month saw MS Victoria, which had been contracted by The Scottish Government to provide temporary accommodation and a place of safety for the Ukrainian community arriving in Scotland, fully disembarked of onboard guests. At the passing of such a big milestone, it’s no small thing to quietly reflect on what has been achieved over the last year. Standing at the edge of the pier on Tue 11 Jul to watch MS Victoria majestically sail away from the port, against one of Edinburgh’s rare golden sunsets, I’m not ashamed to say a bit of emotion washed over me. Standing alongside colleagues, partners and the community recounting stories of their time living and working onboard will stay with me through my professional life.
Back to the Beginning…
It goes without saying that Edinburgh has a housing challenge, which is systematic of social housing policies in years gone by, so it was always going to be difficult to marry Scotland’s commitment to a Warm Scots Welcome against available homes. Looking at solutions to support the Ukrainian community, The Scottish Government chartered MS Victoria to provide accommodation for up to 1,400 people while docked at Forth Ports in Leith.
I vividly remember being a volunteer on the response in July last year and being invited onboard ship to view the facilities. This was shortly after the vessel had arrived in Edinburgh and first thoughts were about the morality of providing accommodation on a ship. Then the worry was how the community would be supported to integrate longer term into Scotland’s communities. However, those concerns were alleviated after seeing the onboard facilities and hearing about plans for engagement with partners like the Department for Work and Pensions, NHS and community and voluntary sector partners. As August came around, I had the privilege of joining the team at EVOC full time with MS Victoria regularly acting a remote workplace – I was on and off for meetings, worked with partners and facilitated activities onboard.
A True Partnership…
Over my relatively short career, I’ve had the privilege of working on a variety of projects and with a variety of departments and directorates. However, nothing has matched the commitment of the people and teams in the local authority, government and our sector. How groups and organisations across sectors have worked together over the last year has been nothing short of an incredible feat. It has been an example of true partnership with a shared priority – the wellbeing of the people arriving from Ukraine.
As well as the paid workforce that have supported the cities response, I’d like to pay tribute to the volunteer workforce that has contributed over 7,000 hours of voluntary support over the last year. Edinburgh TSI partners, Volunteer Edinburgh, have been deploying the community taskforce since March last year at Edinburgh Airport, AUGB Edinburgh have opened the Ukrainian community centre weekly providing a range of support services and projects across the city have been supporting and coordinating humanitarian aid collections.
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