'Ireland has welcomed me, and whatever I am doing in the community, I am giving back' (2024)

“I left Mariupol because my house, business and car were destroyed by the war,” says the 43-year-old. “Before that, I knew nothing about this country, but my wife Victoria was fascinated by the beauty of Ireland and our friends said that very friendly people live here, so she insisted on moving here.”

Aleksandr and his wife arrived in Ireland in November 2022. They were later joined in Ballina in Mayo by his 68-year-old mother, Tatiana. After a brief period of adjusting to their new reality, the couple decided to put the skills they had brought with them from Ukraine to good use in Ireland.

“The first few months, we were still mentally in Ukraine,” he says. “We spent a lot of time following the terrible events back home. After a few months, we started to adapt to our new life and enrolled in English courses.

“I’m a yoga instructor. I offered to work with various organisations on a voluntary basis, conducting yoga classes attended by both Irish people and Ukrainians. I travelled to different hotels and held sessions with Ukrainians and I did some classes for the parents of Irish children at a local school. We also joined the local street cleaning volunteers in Ballina, so every Saturday we had the opportunity to be useful to the town and we got to interact with local residents.”

Aleksandr has since relocated to Carlow where he is in the process of opening a yoga school.

He also hopes to launch a social project across the country that brings local clean-up groups together. Victoria, who had over 11 years experience working as a logistics manager, returned to college to bring her qualifications into line with Irish requirements and has now found work here in her field.

Though the three seem to have settled in well, their stay is tinged with sadness. Not everyone in their family is safe. Their 24-year-old son remains back home.

“The war caught him during his military service,” says Aleksandr. “On March 9, 2022, his battalion was surrounded, and since then we have had no contact with him. For a long time, he was considered missing in action, but later we received information that he was wounded and is being held captive. Our family has been searching for him and waiting for news about his fate for three years now. I have had to learn to live with this and find the strength to make plans for the future.”

For now, those plans are firmly fixed in Ireland.

“We recently received our residence permits,” says Aleksandr. “Giving us hope we’ll make a new home on this wonderful island. Ireland has become a new, pleasant home for us with friendly people.”

Grace Massah

Grace Massah from Malawi came to Ireland in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic. Though it was December, she was relieved to find herself welcomed on a cool dark day at Dublin Airport. Grace has Albinism, a genetic condition that stops the production of melanin and thus affects skin and hair pigmentation.

“I moved to Ireland for my peace of mind,” she says. “Because of issues of abuse. Back home we don’t know who is hunting for our body parts. I’m a professional healthcare worker. I was working with the government, advocating for the rights of people living with Albinism. But I found it hard.”

Not only do people with Albinism in Malawi have to deal with the risks of sun damage and skin cancer as well as a lack of support around care and education, there is also the very real risk of mutilation and even murder because of the belief that the body parts of people with Albinism bring luck to those who know how to use them in spells.

“We face social stigma and discrimination right from birth,” says Grace. “We come into the world and right away we look different. I have buried my colleagues with Albinism who have been dismembered and that was very traumatising. I have seen them dying from skin cancer. The sun is just too much and the wounds start when they are very young. Before they are forty they are already gone.”

Grace spent six months in a Dublin hotel before moving to Cork and eventually settling in Galway. As a qualified nurse, she had no trouble finding work in Ireland, and in her role as a care assistant at Galway University Hospital, she gets to meet and help hundreds of people in the local community.

“I was given my refugee status in nine months,” says the 44-year-old. “The whole process didn’t take long at all. The interviews were quite smooth and straight to the point and I greatly appreciate the support I have had. I am still in shared accommodation. The houses are not there in Galway.

“I miss my family but I have my social space back and a lot of the concerns I had back home are gone. I like Ireland so much. The main reason is the language. It made it easy to integrate. The challenge is that Irish people speak too fast and they have their own accent which took a while to get used to. I also like the weather. It’s quite cool, it’s not as hot as back home. I like the character and attitudes of Irish people. I find a lot of them are very kind and welcoming.”

Zandile Ndlovu

Zandile Ndlovu is another refugee who has adopted Galway as her home since arriving in 2022.

“My mother died when I was born,” says the Zimbabwean. “And I was raised by my aunt. Before I was nine, she passed so I was left an orphan and that was the day I stopped going to school. I had to go to the street to hustle.”

Eventually, Zandile started to go to bars and nightclubs where the children of wealthy and influential political figures “usually hang out”. One night she met her husband, the son of a military man and a member of Robert Mugabe’s all-powerful ZANU-PF party.

“At the beginning the marriage was nice,” she recalls. “But he started beating me. Even if I asked him where he had been, he’d beat me.”

On one occasion, he beat her while she was carrying their firstborn. The nine-month-old died as a result.

“He hit me against the wall,” she recalls through tears. “Instead of my back hitting the wall, the child hit her head. He wasn’t even sorry.”

Because of his position, her husband was untouchable. Zandile faced daily threats. Eventually, she plucked up the courage and gathered the money to escape. She fled to South Africa and then flew to Ireland where she now has refugee status.

Almost as soon as she arrived, Zandile got involved with her local community. Though she still lives in Direct Provision with her son, she keeps busy with various organisations including: Africa United Galway, United Women Galway, and ALONE. She has recently completed her QQI Level 5 in Special Needs Assistance. She is determined to stay and make an impact on the society that has taken her in.

“Ireland has welcomed me,” she says. “The community has welcomed me, and whatever I am doing in the community, I am giving back. Ireland is a very integrated community. People in Galway are very friendly.”