Help for Ukranian Refugees

Dear fellow members,

Thank you for your overwhelmingly positive response to engage DLTSC’s members and resources to support the Ukrainian refugees relief effort. These are some of the initiatives that you suggested and support:

• Offering honorary (free) membership of the Club
• Offering tennis rackets, clothes, shoes
• Support to learn to play tennis or squash
• Provide meals to members, e.g. on Wednesday Club Night, to raise funds
• Other fund raisers
• Provide meals to refugees to relieve hosts, including transportation to the Club
• Provide childcare
• Provide English language training

We have also had members kindly offering accommodation and where it is feasible, we will work with our own personal networks to try and link them directly with refugees who require sponsors. 

We have reached out to Mole Valley and Surrey Councils, to understand better how we may be able to get in touch with refugees who move into the Dorking area, and what kind of help is most wanted. If refugee coordination is handled by other organisations, we will try to find out who they are and get in touch with them.

In the meantime, we will get started with fundraising, so that we are in a good position to roll out some of the above initiatives when they become needed. We will also reach back out to those of you who have so kindly offered their help.

Please look out for further announcements.

Best regards,

Arnold & Pank

ANOTHER UPDATE: The below is an update of William Lewis's trip to Poland sent from a friend of his who is in contact with him:

Hi Everyone,

William has asked me to let you all know how things are going in Poland/Ukraine.  
 
He is now based in the Polish town of Przemysl on the Ukrainian border.  It is apparently teeming with people from many places in the World who've travelled there to help in any way they can.  William is working with two other foreigners (an American and an Irishman). He's done one trip into Ukraine in a borrowed ambulance loaded with medical supplies, body armour (and dog food !) all of which was delivered to someone with a vehicle on the Ukraine side.   Coming back into Poland took 4 hours at the border crossing with a very detailed search of the ambulance which by then was empty of its goods.  He has since done multiple runs across into Ukraine and back.
 
He is now registered with the Polish transportation authorities which will enable him to transport refugees and is today taking a group of 8 people to Hamburg in our own vehicle.  He tells me that it is chaos on the ground and very sadly the 'scammers' have arrived.  What can one say to that ?
 
The incredibly generous donations that William took with him were safely delivered and thank you everyone who contributed.  We are now hoping for further donations and he has identified that the things in most need now are:-   non-prescription medications (paracetamol etc),  medical dressings of all kinds, toiletries with a particular emphasis on feminine hygene items but also toothpaste, soap, toothbrushes.   We will be aiming to send these items by air freight to the airport of Rzeszow which is 100 kilometres from where he has currently based himself.
 
And from me - courage, empathy, strength, determination, human kindness are all words that come to mind.  And - prayers for his safe return.

Christine