500 Ukrainian refugees homed in East Anglia thanks to Sunflower Sisters support group
Sunflower Sisters is a organisation that helps refugees and hosts in multiple areas.
Last updated 23rd Jun 2022
Sunflower Sisters was created by Alice Good and started off as an online support network to help female refugees, that grew rapidly.
Alice say they have helped "roughly in the region of about 8 to 10,000" individuals find housing.
Alice told us the support doesn't stop there:
"It goes beyond that, because we also support the hosts. We also support women that we didn't actually place (the women that were not housed through Sunflower Sisters), but have come to us for various reasons including getting support with getting to the UK.
"A lot of these women, understandably, have experienced high levels of trauma and their mission is to get their families to the UK, to make sure their children are safe.
"And then they come to the UK and some will crash after the reality of what they've been through.
"There are some experiencing post traumatic stress disorder, and we're seeing so much of that now, women are suffering and it's really upsetting to see.
"We just hope that that they are able to get the support the need."
Sunflower Sisters has over 30,000 Ukrainian ladies and hosts on their social media forum and as the project has grown it has started dealing with deeper issues among the refugee community.
Many refugees need help with visa applications as the documents are very long and can be confusing.
The group is also involved in finding matches for refugees looking for hosts. There are numerous regional coordinators that work with refugees and hosts to help support the matching process.
The support goes beyond this and often, many of our team become friends with some of the families they are placing and indeed the hosts
Alice said: "Some women are finding themselves in crisis for various reasons.
"It could be that it's been a breakdown with the relationship between the hosts and the family.
"It could be safeguarding issues. It could be simply a case of it wasn't a good match because of the location - all sorts of things.
"We have a Crisis Group which I lead alongside a number or British and Ukrainian women."
Sunflower Sisters has now grown to a team of over 85 people, mostly women.
Alice told us "this is not just about British women helping Ukrainian women, that's not what I wanted.
"My vision was that we would work together.
"So now we have a large team of women made up of British women, Ukrainian women and Russian women.
"Some of these women have been placed by us (housed in the UK).
"Some of them are women that are still in Ukraine but wanting to help with all manner of things.
"We have many Ukrainian women working on the crisis team, working as translators, working as accommodation coordinators, all kind of things.
"Some are support workers who work with Sunflower Sisters and some of those who help us are Ukrainians who don't offer professional services, but can be a listening ear.
"Some of our team have got background experience as social workers, as counsellors, as therapists, and we have a large list of mentors.
"We will then bring these ladies in to support these women, and sometimes all that is needed, is a Ukrainian lady, a familiar voice, somebody that understands what they're going through. Just a friendly ear."
"We're not a group that says we don't deal with men. When I set it up, there were many other support groups, Facebook groups, that were helping Ukrainian nationals.
"And I saw with my own eyes a lot of safeguarding issues, a lot of women concerned about being approached by men.
"They were worried about not knowing who they could trust.
"And I felt that we needed to create a safe space for women and run by women.
"But having said that, we have many, many men that contact us privately. They can be male hosts that wish to offer housing.
"They can be single men that may wish to offer a room to another man or to an older lady. It can be men whose wife's aren't on social media who want us to help them.
"It could be men from all different situations. So we don't say we don't deal with men, we just don't have men on our forum, to enable a safe space for our ladies."
Alice told us that a few refugees coming to the UK find themselves in potentially dangerous situations.
"There's a range of different issues. So it can be that a young woman has been placed with a single guy and feels intimidated.
"It may be the case that there hasn't actually been any issues, and no evidence of sexual exploitation or anything like that, but the woman may feel threatened or feel uncomfortable in this situation.
"We have had instances where hosts have been drinking a lot of alcohol and the women feels threatened or feels unsafe.
"We've had the occasional situation where there have been women who have been sexually exploited.
Despite having to deal with some serious issues, Alice told us the experience of running Sunflower Sisters has been incredible, especially watching it grow:
"When I first set it up, I had absolutely no idea that it was going to grow to this magnitude.
"I really just thought it was going to be offering a buddy support system.
"The dedication with the amazing team of women that work with me, without them Sunflower Sisters wouldn't have been a success. Ladies who volunteer their time selflessly "
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“We also have our honorary Sunflower Sister, Adrian Higham from the Bidding Room, BBC1. Adrian contacted me wanting to help .
"I have to say initially, I was somewhat reluctant to bring a guy into the sisterhood, but his passion won me over.
"We now organise the transport together, bringing refugees over on the Sunflower Express which he provided.
"Its been very powerful on many levels.
"Sharing people's stories and people sharing their stories with you.
"One particular case springs to mind. There was a young Lady, Ira who has a child and she wanted to bring her Grandmother over.
"Gemma was the host offering a place in the Northeast. They often share messages on social media saying what a perfect match it was”