Sutherland village rallies around Ukraine refugees
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Polina, Alina and Olha have travelled almost 2500 miles to find refuge in the welcoming arms of a Sutherland village.
Far removed from relatives and friends in their native Ukraine, they are now adjusting to life with their new "family" in Golspie.
The girls, each in their early 20s, made their way north on a train from Edinburgh after their safe passage from war-torn Ukraine was arranged by Major General Patrick Marriott and his wife, Henrietta.
Major General Marriott, former commandant of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, said: "Different families and different hosts will be doing this in different ways, but Henrietta and I treat the girls entirely as family and they hugely respect that. They are very much part of our family.
"We worked on the administration to get their visas and the necessary paperwork to process to get them here. That went very well and it took about 14 days after a few calls out to Ukraine to the girls.
"They then flew to Edinburgh and took the train up north, which is a great way to do it as they had the chance to see a bit of the wonderful country we live in.
"The village and the community council have rallied around this incredibly. It has been quite extraordinary. Offers have come in, between three or four calls a day, providing help in so many different ways. Whether it is lending of bicycles for transport, or offers of work.
"Offers of work, in fact, have been quite important as the girls want to pay something back. Not just paying us back, but paying the community back as well, so they are keen to work in the community and that is being arranged at the moment.
"They like it very much up here, they have made a lot of good friends and we are giving them some English lessons. There are two retired teachers in the village who are doing that.
"It is all terribly positive, and it is great for Golspie. I understand there are now more families on their way."
Patrick's wife, Henrietta, who is the secretary of Golspie community council, has been working alongside fellow CC member Becky Shaw on the administration involved in welcoming Ukrainian refugees to the village, and the steps they must take to help them to integrate in the community.
She said: "This is very much a community effort. We realise as a community council that if we can provide good support for refugees and, crucially, for hosting families as well, it would be better done on a corporate community level than as individuals.
"It also gives us much better leverage with statutory agencies to whom we can say, 'we have several inbound families, give us a hand'."
