In Blanes (Selva) 25 children rescued from the war in Ukraine have lived since April 6 last year. They are the members of an orphanage in the west of the country, 'Native Home', which was rescued by the NGO El Bon Samarità. Initially, they were given a temporary solution so that they could live in Blanes while the war lasted. Now, seeing that the conflict does not end, they consider making the stay permanent.
To do so, they need to find a residence space to continue living together. “It is very important to be able to keep them together because they are a family,” says the organization's director, Jaume Torrado. In this line, they are in talks with the City Council and the General Directorate for Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA).
It was not easy to process both the extraction and transfer, obtaining the permits and the necessary bureaucracy to make it possible to carry out the operation, but finally 31 children between the ages of 2 and 12 and 7 adults who accompanied them arrived in Blanes. A year later, 25 children and 3 adults have stayed, because those who have been able to return have already done so.
Those who have stayed are going to school in the town and are beginning to speak Catalan. After their arrival, they have lived through various stages and, currently, they are in the third extension of an agreement that will last until June. They have been able to do it thanks to the collaboration of volunteers, entities and institutions from all over the world.
"The adaptation process has been complex for the traumas that the orphaned children of the war already carried, but now they already consider Blanes as a second home," explains the director of the NGO El Bon Samarità de Blanes, Jaume Torrado.
Currently, they live in a hostel in the municipality, but as of June, in order to convert this temporary stay into a permanent one, they ask to have an exclusive space that becomes the residence of these orphans and others in similar situations. At the moment, they are in talks with the City Council and the DGAIA to look at making it possible.
The mayor of Blanes, Àngel Canosa, details that "solutions are already being sought to offer children a place to live and financial aid to do activities." A support that they want to be promoted both from the Consistory and from the private sector.
The only condition that they put from the orphanage is to keep the children together and not separate them into families. “The director of the orphanage asks us all to live together because they have grown as a family; It was not a very large orphanage and this year they have carried out an enormous support process for the war”, explains Torrado. In addition, he details that "there are groups of three or even five brothers."
In this line, the mayor of Blanes has advanced that possible future scenarios are being studied, one of which would be to make municipal land available where a stable space can be built, open to sharing and responding to other social and collective needs that may have .
On Friday, March 31, an act was held at the CCFEAM evangelical church in Blanes to commemorate the first year of the arrival of children rescued from the Ukrainian war and refugees in the municipality. The minors, who arrived on April 6, 2022, also wanted to thank the support received. "Initially, it was thought that it would be brief," insists the director of the NGO, who affirms that during this time "the children have gone through an integration process" and now they choose to stay.
The act began with the singing of two songs by the children, one in Catalan and the other in Spanish and Ukrainian. In addition, there was the contribution of Solòmia, a 16-year-old Ukrainian girl, who explained in Catalan, learned during these last months, how her experience was, highlighting above all how much she likes living in Blanes, where what she likes the most It is the beach and the sea.
Another contribution was made by the director of the Ukrainian orphanage, Vitalii Zhilyak, accompanied by his wife and daughter, who in this case acted as a translator into Catalan. His speech, broken by the emotion he felt, was to thank all the support received during all this time, remembering the traumatic experience that had meant seeing how everything he had crumbled due to the war.
In addition, a video was projected in the room that summarized the year lived with images and various testimonies from the children themselves, but also from local and international aid workers from Honduras and the United States who had arrived at the Blanes project. To symbolize the gratitude in so many hands that have joined forces with the common goal of helping, an award was given to the couple of volunteers who devote almost 24 hours a day to caring for the children: Helena, a Ukrainian translator, and her husband, Quim, professor at the Music School of the Col·legi Santa Maria.
