2024-02-24

Kungälv Zonta club helps refugees from Ukraine

On February 24, 2022, Marielle Korend Larsson, deputy governor of Zonta International District 21, sat
in front of the television watching Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Thanks to its network through Zonta
Internationally, she quickly made contact with zonta members in all three Ukrainian zonta clubs to
show their support and to hear if there was anything that we in Sweden could help with.
It was the prelude to a fundraiser that Marielle started among zonta members in Sweden and who
in turn led to a zoom meeting with the other deputy governors within Zonta in Europe. They in turn took
the collection in favor of Ukraine forwarded to its members and before long they had collected 3.5
million kroner which was sent directly to Ukrainian zonta members to be distributed on the spot where it
best was needed. The Swedish collection resulted in 110,000 kroner.
Anyone who followed the news reporting also knows that Sweden quickly accepted war refugees from
Ukraine. Interested in also helping in her home municipality, Marielle Korend contacted Larsson
Stenungsund's municipality to ask if there were any refugees there, but was then told that they had
"moved on".
During the autumn, however, there was an appeal via Facebook about a clothing collection for Ukrainian refugees, which
led to a contact with Save the Children in the locality. Marielle told about Zonta and that
the members of the local zonta club were eager to help the women and girls who had come
to Stenungsund.
It turned out that there was a large group of refugees in a disused sanatorium, far out in the forest, 1.6
miles from the city center. With a grant of 71 kroner a day, they would be able to get clothes,
medicine, transport and hygiene.
Marielle Korend Larsson started her own collection among friends, acquaintances and zonta members.
Clothes, hygiene items, candy, sheets, towels, food and toys poured in from generous
Resident of Stenungsund. Marielle and her husband then took everything collected with them and went out to
the sanatorium to distribute among the needy. When they arrived, they were in for a shock. The refugees had
been there since march 2022 and they had very little to eat. The women gasped for breath when
Marielle unpacked trays of minced meat, they hadn't eaten meat in months.
Now Marielle involved more people in her zonta club to see how they could further help
the families. It was realized how narrow the Swedish bureaucracy can be when the refugees had no right to
something except house room and the aforementioned contribution of SEK 71. The Swedish Migration Agency could only be contacted via
email. The employment agency was in Uddevalla, four miles away, and there you couldn't register as
job seekers without a Swedish social security number. The families received no medical care other than emergency, and none
SFI but only an introduction to the Swedish language in 30 hours.
Today there are 70 refugees in the town, the majority of whom are women and children. Several have moved on to
Canada, Germany and even back to Ukraine. Everyone wants to work or study, or both.
The relief work within the zonta club has shifted from emergency help to trying to develop relationships
between refugee women and Swedish women and to provide long-term support to the Ukrainian women
through the members' networks and various professions.