Tomorrow is the first Anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s war with Ukraine has cost the lives of thousands of innocent people and caused many Ukrainians to flee their country for safety.
The scale of destruction inflicted on Ukraine by Russia has been enormous.
The UK government and most governments from Europe and the US have been supporting the Ukrainian army with defensive equipment, this has been the right thing to do.
Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly thought this would be a quick war that he could win and then go to other parts of Eastern Europe to spread Russian influence.
Last Friday, I was privileged to attend the Mayor of Reading’s fundraising concert to raise money to help support the people of Ukraine in Reading Town Hall.
More than 400 people attended the evening which celebrated Ukraine’s rich and vibrant culture. It was a very colourful evening, we were entertained by Cossack dancers, a Ukrainian male voice choir, other very talented singers, musicians and dancers. There were also poetry readings.
I am sure many thousands of pounds were raised.
Wokingham Borough Council and our residents have been playing their part in helping the Ukrainian people since the beginning of this dreadful war.
When war first broke out there was an outpouring of support, and most donations and support were directed to the Ukrainian community centre in Reading.
We have provided them with an overflow storage unit in Winnersh which allows them to store and sort donations which are then able to be sent on to help people still living in Ukraine.
I was told on Friday night how grateful the Reading branch of Ukrainians of Great Britain were for this support. The Ukrainian community centre do a considerable amount of outreach support for the new and settling Ukrainian community across the Reading and Wokingham area.
For the refugees who have come to Wokingham fleeing war we have set up a case worker support team, where we provide bespoke case worker support dependant on the needs of the family, or person.
We provide this service for any Ukrainian refugee who has moved into Wokingham since the outbreak of war regardless of their visa type as there has been several different visa options available not just the homes for Ukraine option.
Our case worker team have been supporting people with Visa extensions, Health needs, which include doctors, dentists and health screening, employment opportunities and benefit support, English classes, school placements and housing support.
We have supported children with holiday activity and food programme places during school holiday periods.
Christmas gifts have been supplied by the voluntary and community sector and we have recently introduced a drawing and talking therapy to support children in school who are struggling to cope with effects of war and the changes this has bought to their lives.
We set up the Chance to Thrive programme with crowd funding from the local community and this has given opportunity for children to be able to do clubs, attend trips, and activities and them to integrate into community life.
To date, Wokingham has welcomed nearly 500 guests to our borough and 70% of them are now in employment, We have helped over 50 families into longer term accommodation.
I hope that this war will not continue for much longer.
My hope is that the Russians will see that they can’t win the war. In the meantime, we will continue to support Ukrainians who come here to Wokingham as best as we can.
Cllr Clive Jones is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council, and the Lib Dem member for Hawkedon ward
