Ukrainian refugees in Suffolk are finding community through Badminton
An official programme has been set up by a Suffolk badminton coach to help Ukrainian refugees find host families and continue playing badminton
Last updated 26th Aug 2022
Ukrainian refugees in Suffolk are finding community through Badminton.
A official programme has been set up by Suffolk badminton coach, Helen Thornton, to help Ukrainian refugees find host families and allow them to continue playing badminton.
The programme's now been endorsed by Badminton England.
Helen told us how this was started: "I just did my own social media on my own Facebook, my own social media communities.
"I put a message out there at the very beginning of March to say I know this scheme is coming from the government, I'm looking to get some badminton players over here and would anybody be interested in hosting?
"I had a really lovely response and literally within a couple of weeks of the scheme being open, I'd matched seven or eight families."
She describes what it was like for those Ukrainian families, when they arrived in Suffolk, knowing they would be able to continue to play badminton: "They were just overwhelmed. They just said when can we come?
"It was really quite bizarre how important the badminton was to these families.
"Their children are playing badminton, or were playing badminton, practically every day in Ukraine.
"So apart from their actual family and wanting to be safe, the next thing on their agenda was if we come to the UK can we play badminton?
"And that was the real thing that gripped them and made them say yes, we want to come."
Medal Holders
Medal Holders
Helen says the group has continued to grow: "It's amazing. So for most of them, their first badminton session would have been at the Ipswich Performance Centre.
"It was quite nice because they sort of came in dribs and drabs. The first family arrived and then a week or so later the next family, and so on.
"They walked in the badminton hall, and their faces lit up. It was just (an) incredible transformation.
"Some of them had had quite a hard time, some of them had been living in their basements.
"One family had to leave their home because it was bombed, and there are other things that have happened."
Helen also told us badminton has helped these families to integrate into the community: "I think there was initially a sense of relief when they first arrived that they were safe, but it was all unknown to them.
"Some of them do speak English but not particularly well and that's improving.
"But the different culture, the different food, the way we do things, the way we go about our daily lives, it's all very, very different.
"There was obviously that little time when they needed to really try and take stock of that and integrate.
"Then there's the time when again they are thinking about what is happening at home.
"They're safe, but they still have family and friends and everybody else in Ukraine who is still in a very precarious position.
"So, some of them are integrating into our life really, really well, getting jobs, going to school. I can't say that they would necessarily want to stay here forever, but it seems that they are all settling in really really well.
"Some of them have even been on a trip with the Badminton Club on summer tours and some of them are playing tournaments.
"For most of these juniors, badminton is their life and they love it."