A heart-warming family has opened their home to a Ukrainian refugee and her daughter as part of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.

Zuzana Pollakava along with her husband and two children were connected with the family after being contacted on the ‘Ukraine Take Shelter’ website.

Ivanna Ambriosiychuk and Nika, aged 6, arrived in Bracknell Forest this week after escaping Chernivtsi, a city in Southwestern Ukraine following the beginning of Putin’s invasion.

Zuzana, who moved to the UK in 2004 from Slovakia said: “If I was in that situation, I would hope that there would be people that would help. There are families there having to run away from everything that they have and start completely from scratch.

“I know what it’s like to start over and try to acclimate to a new country and a new way of living. I moved to the UK when I just finished school and then met my husband. Obviously, my situation wasn’t half as bad, but I feel that I can relate in some way.”

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The family of four live in a three-bedroom house in Easthampstead but with one bedroom available they were also able to accommodate Ivanna’s husband so that the whole family were able to be together.

Bracknell News:

Zuzana Pollakova explained: “My daughter and Nika just instantly gelled as soon as they met. Even though Ivanna’s daughter doesn’t speak English they seem to be able to communicate perfectly.”

“Ivanna and myself are just realising that both Ukrainian and Slovakian are very similar, and we can both understand each other a little bit. We are even able to communicate with a combination of Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and Slovakian.

“I never realised that I could understand Ukrainian, but all of the Slavic languages are very similar.”

Arriving on Tuesday evening, both families were greeted with incredible support from Bracknell Forest council. Zuzana explained that a Bracknell charity and a representative from the council arrived to meet them with the necessary essentials including clothes and additional food.

Mrs Pollakova said: “I was very pleasantly surprised because it is such a new scheme but the support we have received has been amazing.”

Ivanna and daughter Nika are keen to learn English so that they are able to transfer into similar job and school atmospheres that they had back in Ukraine.

Ivanna unfortunately had to leave behind a job that she absolutely loved in medical laboratory diagnostics with a speciality in paramedics and would like to move into a similar role once she is fluent in English.

Bracknell News:

This partnership was organised by Shanti Roos, who so far has successfully connected multiple families with refugees throughout the UK. Ivanna and her family have become the first family to have a successful transfer to the UK with the help of many kind people along the way.

There has been a huge community support behind this pairing with hundreds of Bracknell residents offering a kind word and lots of support on local community social media pages.