Salopians stand up ready to offer homes to Ukrainian refugees
County residents have been coming forward offering rooms, homes and jobs for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion.
As the government sets out its plans to support households which take in refugees, it has emerged that a number of Shropshire residents have already been putting themselves forward to take in Ukrainian refugees.
Amanda Jones, of the charity Shropshire Support Refugees, said she had been heartened by the amount of people who already want to help.
She said the charity had received around 60 messages offering places for people to stay, or to work.
She said: "My e-mail box is full. It is heart warming, it brought a tear to my eye this morning when I saw the amount of people offering to help.
"We had about 60 e-mails offering rooms, houses, jobs."
She added: "Some of those offers are houses, some are multiple houses, some are businesses that want to support."
Ms Jones said the charity would be looking at what financial support is available as it in turn needs more staff to potentially help Ukrainians who find refuge in the county.
She said: "We will need extra staff to do this. it is all very much in the air but if it can be done we will do it really well and we are getting many great offers."
She added: "We are learning everything about the scheme that we can as it comes out."
The charity, based at the United Reformed church in Shrewsbury, has considerable experience helping refugees having supported Syrians who have made their home in the county, as well as Afghans.
The county response is likely to involve a number of groups, in collaboration with the local authorities.
Jools Payne, who set up Oswestry Welcomes Refugees in 2015 to support Syrians fleeing the civil war, said she had also been heartened by the number of people willing to offer practical help – including places to live.
She said: "We have definitely had people over the last week or so sending messages saying what will Oswestry be doing and I want to help. We have had several offers of people willing to open their homes to Ukrainian refugees.
"That is something I am informally gathering that information for when we get more detail from the government."
