OVER the past year Aireborough Rotary, helped by a grant from District 1040, has been helping a group of Ukrainians settle into life in West Yorkshire.

With a large group of families hosted in the area, the initial plan was to help them learn English although for many it was more a matter of helping them improve their grasp of a language they had learned in school. St Margaret’s Parish Church, Horsforth, provided the rooms for the Friday night sessions with games and toys enabling children to accompany parents.

A local qualified teacher and interpreter Juliya Zarubinska-Toepritz was soon recruited and help was provided by two Aireborough members with ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) qualifications Sally Mohan and Robert Mirfield. Juliya is adept at developing a novel curriculum utilising a variety of rolling topics: getting to know the area, local customs and holidays, the local Walks of Art, the Coronation and even episodes of history.

At the same time the children were attending local schools, both primary and secondary whilst at the same time continuing their studies online linking up with teachers in the Ukraine.

Complementing the weekly lessons, all the families, thoroughly enjoyed the Yeadon Town Hall Christmas pantomime ‘Beauty and the Beast’, a story well known to them and though the script caused many problems the humour, judging by their laughter and applause was noisily understood. The District funding also recently made possible a day away at leisure park, Gulliver’s Kingdom with a full bus load enjoying a happy day out when the sun shone.

Members of the group are steadily finding employment with catering, retail including supermarkets, hotels, driving and accountancy all listed among the successes.