My sister and I came to London in April 2022 under the Homes for Ukraine program because of the war in our country. Previous to the war, we loved doing sports, travelling and spending time with our friends and family. We are really excited to get back to those activities in London and make a life for ourselves here.
All this time we have been living with different host families. It took me 4 months to find a job and my sister had to finish her University degree. She had a part time job , but that money was not enough to rent. Walthamstow council told us that Beam can help us with our first move, as my sister recently finished her degree and started a new job but we didn’t have enough money at the beginning to pay for a deposit and the first month of rent.
It feels amazing that people from not our native country treat us like we are native here and have been willing to help from the first day we arrived. When we find a home it will feel like we have our second home in the country which adopted us. It will feel as if we are a complete part of the society. We hope our challenging journey will be an inspiring example for other people not to lose hope that things can always get better.
In time, my sister and I wish to be able to save for a mortgage for our own place so that we can feel fully stable in our new country!