Julia Syrotenko, Community Integration Worker with Wexford Local Development, came up with a novel way of helping her fellow Ukrainians to improve their English. Her Walk and Talk initiative has been a huge success in Gorey and surrounding areas. Together with a group of Irish volunteers, the Ukrainian refugees currently living in Wexford take part in weekly walks, which helps them to make new friends while practising their conversational English in a relaxed setting.
Julia told Changing Ireland: “The Walk and Talk was my idea. I’m living in Ireland 13 years and from my experience, if you’re learning English in a class, everyone has a barrier. But when you’re walking and talking with people, it’s a different situation, it’s much easier to talk to people and to jump this barrier.
“We have loads of Irish volunteers. Irish people like walking and running; it’s not hard to find Irish volunteers. These days with the bad weather, it has turned into a conversation club that we hold indoors. But that makes it more complicated, we need to find a space to hold it.”
“The Walk and Talk was more aimed at Ukrainians, a lot of Ukrainians arrived at the Taravie Hotel in Courtown. But we now have Syrians and other different nationalities coming to the conversation club. We will continue the Walk and Talk in Gorey after the Christmas break.”
Julia goes above and beyond to assist her fellow Ukrainians, often answering queries in the evenings and at weekends.
“People have so many questions. They need help with translation, with going to the GP or hospital. It’s not my role, my role is really to organise activities for them, but I do it because they need help,” she explained.
Some of the events Julia has helped to organise so far include Christmas parties at the various hotels where Ukrainians are living, a concert in Enniscorthy celebrating Ukraine’s Independence Day in August, as well as children’s entertainment.
She added: “Some of the stories that you hear are heartbreaking. Some kids and adults have big trauma. We have started a psychology programme for them with Ukrainian psychologists, and that is helpful for them. Most of them have settled in well in Ireland, the help Ireland has given has been very good. But lots of people are waiting for victory and want to go home.
“Being a refugee doesn’t mean you have no money. Some people had huge businesses, they had good jobs and they lost everything, they just took their kids and left. That’s very hard mentally, when people were on good money and they can’t work now because they can’t speak English. I moved countries because it was my decision. Coming to a different country because of war is very different.”
