A week after the start of the war in Ukraine, the population is fleeing the country en masse to escape the Russian bombardments.
In France, many families are preparing to open the doors of their homes to Ukrainian refugees.
Municipalities, prefectures and associations are mobilized to identify all these goodwill.
They are more than a million to have taken the road of exile.
A week after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the population is fleeing massively from their country, where the bombardments are intensifying.
The High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) thus identified 1,038,583 refugees on its dedicated website on Thursday.
Among them, “more than half” are children, estimated the deputy regional director of Unicef in Europe, Philippe Cori.
And the number of refugees is likely to rise to four million people "if the fighting does not stop", he added.
Everywhere in Europe, and particularly in France, solidarity is being organised.
Collections of money and medical equipment have been launched to help the population remaining in Ukraine.
At the same time, many are those ready to welcome the Ukrainian refugees who are beginning to arrive in France.
"Give a little respite to a family and instil mutual aid in our children"
Corinne is ready.
“I am welcoming this week a family of six who are on the road: a father, his 71-year-old mother, his wife and their three children aged 9, 7 and 5.
A decree specifies that the fathers of three children and more are not mobilized.
I have known them since 2004, getting them to safety was a matter of course”.
Daoudi, he does not know anyone in Ukraine, but faced with the images of bombardments, he "did not think long: with my wife, we immediately said that we had to welcome refugees".
For this father of two young children, the goal of this approach is to "give a little respite to a family and instil mutual aid in our children", he explains, not frightened for a second by "the barrier of language ".
A state of mind shared by Alicia.
“The Ukrainians did not ask for anything and are suffering this terrible attack.
It is important to help them: if we were in their situation, we would be happy if someone made this gesture.
It is this example of solidarity that I want to show to my children”, continues the mother of the family.
Still need to know how to organize.
“It is difficult to find information on the procedure to follow”.
Like her, Samy doesn't know “who to send [his] hosting proposal to, when I have a studio that I would like to make available to a family”.
The associative network in action
On the ground, a number of associations have mobilized to identify volunteers and put them in contact with the refugees on the way.
This is how “we volunteered with a local association helping orphans from Chernobyl to welcome a family,” explains Jérôme.
We have no connection with Ukraine, but seeing the situation, and since Europe cannot intervene militarily in Ukraine without risking a nuclear war, the least we can do is support these brave people is to welcome these families to France".
When, the day after the first bombardments, Romuald heard on the radio a call for mobilization launched by an association, he immediately spoke about it to Eva, his wife.
"We said to ourselves 'if we don't do it with the space we have in our big house, who will?'
The young parents responded to the appeal of the humanitarian association Les Joyeux petits souliers, which is very involved in the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine.
“We then launched a call for donations on social networks to fit out an apartment on the first floor of our house.
And the donations have poured in, we will be able to offer all the comfort possible to a family of refugees”.
Initiatives launched by several municipalities and prefectures
Michel, he has regularly welcomed refugees for five years in his town of Voreppe, in Isère.
“First a Mongolian family, then three Syrian families.
Then, we created the Voreppe Solidarités Réfugiés association, and are taking action in collaboration with the mayor.
Today, we are about twenty volunteers who work to integrate refugees into the city, with support in administrative procedures, learning French, help with children's homework or medical support and job search.
And we are preparing for the arrival of Ukrainian women and children: several families from Voreppe have already offered to welcome them and the mayor is mobilized”.
Like Voreppe, several municipalities and prefectures have launched initiatives to encourage the reception of Ukrainians.
This is the case of Lille, but also of Toulouse, where the town hall lists the families offering accommodation.
Among them, Dorothy, “great-granddaughter of Polish immigrants who arrived in Pas-de-Calais in the 1930s. The exodus of these Ukrainians echoes what my grandparents experienced, who fled to escape the invasion of Nazi Germany.
Today, I live in Toulouse with my husband in a big house, the children are gone.
It is therefore quite natural that we registered on the town hall's website to offer a large room in the warmth of our home”.
A platform to centralize all initiatives
Sandy, who lives with her children in the Alps, near the Italian border, is also used to hosting refugees in her big house.
And stands ready to open her home to Ukrainians, she who has already visited their country.
“I have the space, the desire and the time to take care of them for as long as it takes, to support them in this part of their life and one day, I hope, to accompany them back to their country and see a free Ukraine again.
But for four days, I send mails to the consulate, to the embassy, in vain.
And the town hall does nothing.
I finally managed to register on the list of a neighboring town which will be transmitted to the prefecture of the Hautes-Alpes, and I am awaiting a return”.
Like her, Yannick and his wife contacted several structures.
This desire to help without really knowing how to go about it, Camille Cocaud also experienced it: “Searching on the Internet, I saw that it was difficult to find your way around”.
It is to respond to all these volunteers that the young woman, a digital consultant, launched the WeUkraine collective a few days ago, “a platform that lists all the civic and humanitarian initiatives intended for Ukrainians.
I submitted the project to my professional network and more than a hundred volunteers responded to the call to develop the platform, answer questions, centralize and relay the safe initiatives of major associations or NGOs, or Franco-Ukrainian cultural associations well established in the local tissue.
And to ensure that the site holds up against the flow and possible cyberattacks, ”she explains.
On the platform, "just fill in a form, and depending on your location, you can access a list of initiatives launched near you, with contact details to link volunteers and associations".
Philippe, he is preparing to welcome “a mother and her 16-year-old son, as well as their cat, he specifies.
They are currently in Mukachevo, in western Ukraine, after leaving the capital.
They will be there in the next few days”.
Toulouse
War in Ukraine: Twinned with Kiev, Toulouse organizes itself to welcome refugees
World
War in Ukraine: Donations of money and medical equipment… How solidarity with Ukrainians is organized in France
Humanitarian aid
Refugees
Association
War in Ukraine
Solidarity
World
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