February 24th marks a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, forcing almost 8 million refugees to flee their homes. We are thankful for the huge surge of ordinary people in the UK who stepped up to the challenge and became sponsors, between them welcoming 150,000 refugees into their homes over the past year. But now the surge of sponsors has subsided, the story is no longer so prominently in the news, and yet the need for sponsors to help refugees come to the UK is still great, as we found on a recent visit to a refugee centre in Poland.

Last year Citizens UK called for organisations to help us find hosts for a thousand Ukrainian refugees by Easter. Soon we had organisations signing up as Partners on our Communities for Ukraine Programme, and we had pledges for well over a thousand refugees. The Communities for Ukraine Programme has worked well – giving Ukrainian refugees dignity and agency, offering support to hosts, and with high standards of sustainability and safeguarding.

In 2023 Citizens UK, along with its Refugee Resettlement Partners, invites you to join us for an event to mark a year since the war began:

• to lament the lives lost and lives disrupted;

• to celebrate the stories of hope from Ukrainian refugees and their hosts;

• to hear the experiences of Ukrainian refugees who are waiting to come to the UK;

• and to renew our commitment to the people of Ukraine by supporting the ‘5,000 by Easter’ campaign.

The idea behind the ‘5,000 by Easter’ is simple – last year we called for organisations to help us find hosts for 1,000 people by Easter (and we exceeded that target), so this year we are being more ambitious and asking for hosts for 5,000 more refugees by Easter. Whether you are part of a larger organisation that acts as an umbrella Refugee Resettlement Partner, or an individual household, we can help you become a sponsor, matching you with a Ukrainian who needs to come to the UK. Following the event all potential hosts will be offered the opportunity to find out more by attending an online seminar run by one of our Refugee Resettlement Partners.