Thank you for your interest and partnership as we seek to support the great change refugee centre in whatever ways we can. They are so encouraged that those of you who pray are regularly praying for their work. We also send the centre £1,000 a month. The Crowdfunder money is now running low and we are reliant on monthly donations.

The purpose of this update is not to guilt anyone into donating, but give the opportunity to donate to those who may wish to.

There are (currently) 4 people who donate a total of just over £700 a month, to help keep this refugee centre running. We would love to get this monthly donation to £1,000 so we can continue to support the centre as we currently are.

If 5 or 10 more people all donate £20 a month that would make a tangible difference to the >100 refugees who are being cared for.

There are also bigger dreams about helping them to buy solar panels which would make them far more self-sufficient. This would require more significant one-off donations (update – we’ve just received a £3,750 donation, so with some further one-off donations we may well be able to help make this dream a reality!).

After making an initial donation you will have the option of creating a regular donation too. You don’t have to pay a 10% tip to Crowdfunder. Just click the button saying “enter custom amount” and select 0% if that is what you wish.

July 2024 update

Some have asked for a bit of information about our recent trip to the Great Change Refugee centre in Ukraine.

The centre has between 90 and 120 refugees at any given time. Whilst we were there last week there were just over 100. These refugees are from war torn areas of Ukraine and each has a story. We were privileged to hear some of them. 

The main reason for our visit was to help with a youth camp for 9 to 13 year-olds. There were 67 kids, most of which were refugees, who arrived for a week of fun and laughter. This meant the site was very full and six of us slept on bunk beds in the boiler room next to the toilets for the week.

There was a superb atmosphere on camp as we worked with the Ukraine team in the 30-degree heat to provide a range of activities including craft, games in the lake & on the beach and fun with water-balloons. Each afternoon the Ukrainian team ran a meeting for the kids, a bit like a school assembly but much more fun, with a bible story and songs to sing and dance along to. Often the kids performed sketches they had worked on that day. Do pray the spiritual seeds from this week fell on fertile soil.

There was a range of practical jobs the team completed, including building a new bedroom, trimming all the hedges on the site, cutting the grass on the field, putting a roof on a new storeroom, and building a new shower block.

There were also some national service men and women who joined the camp each day to show the kids what they do during the war. There was an ambulance crew, a fire-engine (who sprayed the kids with water, much to their delight), and some soldiers with their dogs and drones.

One little girl, Vlada (below), stayed away when the soldiers came. She was upset and explained through tears that her dad and older brother have both been killed in the war and she didn’t like seeing the soldiers at it reminded her of difficult times at home. It was wonderful to see the kids having so much fun, but their pain remained close at hand.

Two of the Ukrainian leaders are pictured below. David is still at school and is a great singer, Esther is a music teacher, and it was a joy to hear them perform. They are both incredible musicians and great fun to be with. Their brother Bogdan was killed in the war last year. He loved playing the violin and was a friend to many of the team.

Edward was keen to show us the bore hole (well), and water filtration systems that were funded through a generous donation to the Crowdfunder. They provide clean water for drinking which has stopped many stomach illnesses that they used to deal with regularly. We also used the minibus that we have funded. Chairs were added to the open area in the back and 18 campers somehow fit in, and were transported back home at the end of camp! We give thanks for what we’ve been able to provide through the generous donations to the Crowdfunder.

We had a day after the kid’s camp finished before we had to leave, and we explored the local town. The air-raid siren sounded a couple of times, but no-one reacted. The warning isn’t specific, and could mean any area in the whole Odesa region is under threat. People carried on life as normal and our friend casually remarked that it was probably Odesa that was the target. It was a sign of the how normalised our friends had become to war.

Despite the armed guards walking off with our passports, and a 4hr 15min delay when we were trying to leave Ukraine, we were thankful for a safe journey home.

Our friends shared some of their fears and concerns. At any time, any of the men we were spending time with could be called up to fight. This is getting increasingly likely as Ukrainian casualties grow. It’s hard to feel how they and their families must feel.

The Great Change refugee centre is strategically placed in the middles of the countryside; it is a relatively safe space in Ukraine. However, a concern for the Ukrainian team is that Russia will try to cut Ukraine off from the sea. If this happens Ukraine wouldn't be able to export their main product - grain. This would move the front line closer to the nearby big cities and towns of Odesa and Izmael. Edward reflected on the responsibility he would have towards the 100 refugees, and the difficult decisions that would need to be made if the fighting came closer.

 Whilst we were in Ukraine, Russia bombed a couple of big power stations in the region. There were fears the little electricity they received each day might cease.

The refugee site continues to receive around 4 hours of electricity per day. They use the generator to fill some of these gaps where they can. The generator uses around 7 litres of diesel per hour - so is very expensive. Without electricity the fridges and freezers turn off and all their chilled food supplies are at risk. They also lose their lighting, and have no water for showers, cooking, or toilets (as one of the team found out half way through a shower). Whilst we were with the Ukraine team the generator stopped working and we realised the kind of additional stresses the team are managing, with over two weeks of frozen food for 100 refugees being at risk. Fortunately, it was fixed within a couple of hours.

As on previous trips, there was a mixture of enjoyment building this partnership and seeing the camp offering so much fun to the kids, inspiration and admiration for the Ukrainian team who are committed to this work, and great sadness at the situation and the bleakness of war. At a time when the focus of the western world has mainly moved elsewhere, it means a great deal to the Ukrainian team to be assured of our support.

June 2023 update

This year, as well as continuing to host over 100 refugees, Great Change Refugee Centre decided to run a series of 4 youth camps over the summer. The kids are from families displaced by the war, who have stayed in the refugee centre over the past year and have settled locally. They asked us to bring reinforcements and help with their first camp, and the team of 8 of us just got back. 

We quickly realised the leadership team and many of the volunteers where exhausted. Some had been working around the clock (literally all night) for the last few weeks to complete the building that would sleep the kids. Others had been on site for over a year, missed their old life, and were emotionally exhausted from helping refugees who have been through so much.

We listened to many refugees. One spoke of her 11 kids, including three sons who are all in the Ukrainian army. One of them had been captured by the Russian army and she was still waiting to hear news of him. 

Another lady described the experience of living in a city being shelled, and then how much worse it was to live there once it was taken over by the Russian soldiers. After being physically abused by the soldiers, she found it unbearably intimidating seeing them in the street, and in her anxiety developed ticks. She escaped and was taken in by Great Change refugee centre, who helped by giving her accommodation, food, a listening ear and space to process what had happened. 

One of the leaders of the refugee centre, Edward, explained that when they started working with the refugees their reaction to the stories they heard was hugely emotional. Over a year later, it was hard to invest the same energy in each refugee, and hard not to feel emotionally numb to each next painful story. 

He also showed us a photo from a couple of years ago and pointed to friends and family explaining, “they’ve gone, they’ve gone”. Many fled Ukraine in the first few weeks of the war. Many who have stayed consider those who fled the country to be ‘traitors’, and he fears the problems this will cause in the years to come. During our stay some of our team were able to pastorally support the leadership team who were dealing with so much.

The 60 kids arrived just as the site was finished for them. Within 24 hours the Ukrainian team asked our team of 8 to run all the activities, games, crafts, sports, and other sessions, to relieve some of the pressure they were under. Our team really stepped up and the kids were given a fantastic week of fun. We can’t imagine the upheaval and challenges these children have faced over the last year and a half, but it was great to see and hear how joyful they were and how much they had enjoyed the week.

A couple of days into the camp the Nova Kakhova dam was destroyed. The flood water reached the city of Kherson which was only a relatively short 8 hours drive away. The Ukrainian team wanted to drive to Kherson with supplies from their storehouse. They asked if we could add our minibus to the convoy, which we agreed to. It was a 6am start, followed by lots of tricky overtaking of lorries on single track roads pitted with potholes. We dropped off food and water to a centre on the outskirts of the city. We then headed to the floodwater to drop of a small boat for one of the team to use to search for people trapped by the flooding. As we were doing so, shelling started on the banks of the flood water. It was sad to see the volunteers and relief workers being targeted and intimidated like this.

The impact of the destruction of the dam is hard to overemphasise, with thousands of homes flooded and families with no access to drinking water or food. For now, most don’t want to leave, despite their houses being completely flooded. More pets were coming back from the rescue operations than people. They judged that the risk of disease from the heavily polluted and infected floodwater, living in a flooded house, and avoiding landmines washed downstream seemed like a smaller risk than leaving houses and possessions and trying to settle in overcrowded schools and local centres.

Despite these difficult scenes it was so powerful to see the work of the volunteers from the refugee centre and their friends in Kherson tirelessly and continuously helping those in need (not just dropping in for a week like us). Since we returned to the UK, they have continued to make regular trips to Kherson to drop off supplies. They are also running another 3 weeks of camps for older children, and planning for how they can offer more beds to those seeking refuge from Kherson.

Our team’s last day in Ukraine was emotional for many of the Ukrainian team as well as us. Evelin runs the refugee centre with her husband Slavik, and reflected through tears how much she valued the support the UK team had given, at a time when they were “running on empty”. One of the team, Pete, stayed for a further week to help practically around camp, and reflected just how many projects they are juggling. 

For those who pray, do pray for Great Change’s ongoing work, for emotional resilience and determination for these incredible people as they continue to serve those in need.

There is a need that is greater than we can resolve, but what we are doing is making a difference to those we’re helping. Can you, your church, any of the groups you are involved in, or your workplace donate so we can do more?

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