This morning The first bus chartered by the organization has arrived in Valencia together for life. This vehicle left the Ukrainian city of Lviv with 53 people, of whom 44 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Spain, several stayed in other countries along the way. Families fleeing war and have been received with hugs and applause.
This NGO, which has been working for years in the reception of Ukrainian minors, has rescued, after almost 5 days of travel, 14 families that already had links with the Valencian Community because their children have participated in the vacation program managed by the organization.
“The hardest thing is knowing that you are leaving and your family stays there. Not knowing when can you come back and if they will be alive“, Explain Marine18, who has just arrived in Valencia after almost five days of traveling by bus from the center of Ukraine.
Marina has just met Concha, her foster mother with whom she has spent 10 summers. “Now we have to think that everything will be fine in Ukraine, the war will end and we will be able to return,” says Marina.
Another of the old women is katya, who has spent many summers in Nules, in Castellón, and who has now returned with her two-year-old son and her nephews. “When she was leaving Kiev my husband called me and told me that now we have nothing. We don’t have a house, where I used to live there is nothing anymore,” she said.
Katya has been reunited with her foster brother, Josep, and her parents, after having to leave her husband and grandfather behind in Bucha, a town near the Ukrainian capital. “There is no coverage, no electricity, no gas, no water. I don’t know anything about anything, but I hope they are well“, has explained.
Arthur, an 11-year-old Ukrainian, has been reunited with his foster family. “Here I am calmer, much better than in Ukraine“, he explained while his foster father stroked his head and his mother said that they are “super happy to have them at home”.
Hundreds of foster applications
Families who already had links with the Valencian Community traveled on this first bus because their children have participated in the vacation program managed by Together for Life. As explained by the vice-president, Jesús Rodríguez, the reception of these people will be “easier” because they already have a relationship with people who live here. “We have hundreds of foster applications, but it’s not that simple,” she added.
However, Rodríguez has indicated that as the days go by, this reception will be more complicated, since people who have no relationship with anyone will come in the Valencian territory and they will also have to locate whoever welcomes them.
For this, it will be necessary to overcome the “soda effect” of the early days:Many people want to help, but this is not welcoming a child, it is a whole family that still comes with the mother, the children and the grandmother.“, he pointed out.
“This is a human foster care, of dedication and effort: You are going to get a family out of the war and you have to take care of them and love them, but they do not come because they want to. As soon as they can they will return, if they have the house and their businesses there , but now is a time that we do not know how long it will last and you’ll have to give them a hand“, explains the vice president of Together for Life.
Source: Lasexta
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