As the war on Ukraine continues, IH schools have stood shoulder to shoulder with their friends and colleagues from Ukraine schools to offer financial and practical support.
We would like to publicly say a heartfelt “thank you” to everybody who has sent a donation, who has offered a home to somebody who has had to flee their country with barely more than the clothes they stand in, and who has given the opportunity of a job to our skilled colleagues who suddenly had no way to earn a living.
We have been touched by these heartwarming stories.
The director of IH Bucharest and his family have given a home to a teacher from IH Kyiv and her children.
The DOS and a teacher from IH Kyiv are with our friends in IH Bratislava. The YL DOS from IH Kyiv is teaching full time at IH Bucharest. IH Prague and IH Sofia have helped with logistical support and teaching hours for other teachers. IH Mexico directors sent financial support to schools and offers of help.
A teacher, who is still in Lviv, has been offered online teaching with IH Queretaro, and the directors of IH Queretaro and IH Manchester have paid three months rent for him.
The director and DOS of IH Torres Vedras welcomed the director and her teenage son from IH Dnipro into their home.
Within three days of asking, there have been offers of accommodation in the homes of our colleagues in Arezzo, Australia, Barcelona, Bielsko Biala, Braga, Bristol, Como, London, Portsmouth, Rome, Sofia, Zurich, and Valladolid.
IH Como Team Lingue are in the process of offering “Survival Italian” lessons for any refugees who move to Italy. IH Portugal is offering free online Portuguese classes to displaced Ukrainians who have arrived in the country. IH Torun, IH Dusseldorf and other schools have also provided free language lessons. IH London has raised funds in various ways including providing Beginner Ukrainian lessons to anyone who would like to learn the language to welcome Ukrainians arriving in the UK.
The team at IH Portsmouth are trying to sponsor students from IH Ukraine schools to study for free in Portsmouth and are using their local contacts to source free accommodation. The team at IH Galway are looking forward to welcoming some Ukrainian students for free classes and are actively fundraising to provide accommodation from them in the city.
The team at IH Wrocław (Poland) are working with local charities to fund a displaced Ukrainian teacher to teach English to Ukrainian refugees.
Knowing that our colleagues from Ukraine are well qualified and highly skilled teachers, there have been offers of work to enable them to keep earning a living and feeding their families.
For those able to travel to different countries, there have been offers of work in Australia, Berlin, Bielsko Biala, Bristol, Dubai, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Muscat, Palermo, Santiago de Compostela, Sofia, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City.
For those who can teach or train online, we have been connecting them with our colleagues in Mexico, London, Lisbon, Rome, Dusseldorf and Zurich.
And we have raised over €8,000 for World Central Kitchen, which is on the ground and providing hot meals at border crossings in Poland, in Ukraine in Odessa, Lviv, Kharkiv and Kyiv and in Romania, Moldova, Hungary, and Slovakia. These are both individual donations, and the proceeds from fund raising events organised by IH schools reaching out to their own communities.
We also know of many colleagues in our schools who are raising money and contributing to local initiatives to send food, clothes, blankets and medicines to those who need them.
In Ukraine itself, we know that our colleagues at IH Dnipro have been offering their premises for Red Cross and other training and that Marianna, the director of IH Lviv, has opened her home to many, many people who have been passing through the city on their way to Poland and beyond.
We are touched that such a lot has been offered in such a short time. We also know that there will be more to come from our very generous IH family.
Thank you all from the IHWO Team