Jackeline took Ukrainian refugee home: ‘Now it’s time to go’

Jackeline Tullenaar had Ukrainian refugee Olena in her home for three weeks. Now ‘her’ refugee has a place of her own in the Ekelhof, a reception center in a former care center in Eindhoven. Ukrainian refugees are increasingly leaving their host families.

Jackeline’s neighbor drove with others to the border with Ukraine. With four vans from the neighborhood they went to pick up refugees. He was looking for emergency shelter in Eindhoven. “I immediately said yes.”

She received a call that a Ukrainian woman, 50-year-old Olena, was coming to her. With her cat. “I immediately went to the pet store, because we don’t have a cat. Of course I had to have a litter box.”

It was the most natural thing in the world for Jackeline and her husband to open their house. “It also has to do with my own history. My father was in the resistance and ended up in a concentration camp in Dachau. You get that as a child. ‘What would you do?’, you often think. It’s hard to find an answer to that. In this case, that might be it. You do some things just because you feel it doesn’t work. Then you contribute to something.”

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The Brabant-Southeast Security Region says that when the war in Ukraine broke out, the Dutch ‘opened their hearts with good intentions’. But the ‘honeymoon weeks’ are now over for some host families, a spokesperson for the security region said. “We see that more and more private families are coming to deliver their refugees to our registration location in Eindhoven.”

Olena also left after three weeks, but not because something was wrong. There was definitely a click, says Jackeline. “She is a special, strong woman. For the same money you get someone who does not match at all, but we do have the same blood group. My husband and I were working. At five thirty we had a drink and went through the day. Then she was there. The second day she started cooking. We have not set up our lives for her. We didn’t do everything together.”

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It was an advantage that Jackeline had the space to accommodate Olena. Olena had a room with balcony and private bathroom. Jackeline was immediately clear. The shelter was available for as long as it was needed, but not permanently. “This is emergency shelter. As an adult woman, Olena was ready to have and carve her own again after three weeks. In Ukraine she also lives alone, while here she has to take us into account. You are also not going to live with your best friend.”

Olena went. The contact remained. “She wants to move on with her life. I am her first source of information. Yesterday we saw each other. We asked if she needed anything: she wanted a skateboard because she can’t ride a bike. She picked it up yesterday. She is very happy with it.”

The three weeks that Olena was in her house made an impression. “Enriching is an exaggerated word, but it is. You sit in the evening watching the news with someone next to you who can understand exactly the words that appear there. You feel through everything that happens there. You do see through the eyes of a victim.”

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