Nina (38) and Nicolas (48) live with their little son Amir (6) in one of our shelters for Ukrainian refugees. Hans Wijnands is director of De Regenboog Groep.
.Hans: "How long have you been in the Netherlands?"
.Nina: "Me from the beginning of the war, Nicolas came to the Netherlands last year."
Hans: "Where are you living right now?"
Nicolas: "In the Ukraine shelter at the Savoy Hotel."
Hans: "How do you guys look to the future? Do you want to go back or would you rather stay here?"
Nicolas: "We prefer to stay in the Netherlands. We like the culture. The people are nice. And Amir, our six-year-old son, also goes to elementary school here now."
Nina: "That's also because we come from Crimea. An area that had already been taken by the Russians in 2014. The influence of Russia is very much felt there."
Hans: "I was told that you do a lot of volunteer work. How extraordinary. You yourself fled your country because of a war and are now so enterprising to help others."
Nina: "Thank you. True, Nicolas started volunteering right away. He is a cook at Buurtboerderij Centraal, at Buurthuis Lydia ánd at BOOST." [ed. BOOST is a partner organization for the integration of newcomers with a refugee background]
.Nicolas: "Furthermore, I would like to practice my profession in the near future. I am a psychologist."
Nina: "And I am setting up knitting therapy. Knitting is meditative and a very good activity for people with trauma. Did you know that soldiers used to knit, too? Knitting calmed them down when they returned from the front."
Hans: "In Ukraine you mean?"
Nina: "No, soldiers used to do that in different places. And now I want to start helping Ukrainians struggling with trauma with knitting therapy. It helps myself, too."
With De Regenboog Groep, spread over several locations, we are currently hosting nearly 1,900 Ukrainian refugees.