Refugee Week June 2023 highlighting talents
Refugee Week – Day 1
Nataliia Zadorizhna is a concert pianist who started playing the piano at the age of 4. She graduated from the Glier Kyiv Academy of Music and also has a PhD in Linguistics. She arrived here in May to flee the war in Ukraine.
Natalia has been appointed as a peripatetic piano teacher for Surrey Arts and also gives private piano lessons. She has formed a Ukrainian choir in Epsom and is a top-class musician who has played in several concerts in and around Epsom.
Refugee Week – Day 2
Ksenia Bugrimova is an award-winning film producer and creative director who has made many films and tv programs in Ukraine. Since arriving in the UK, she founded Talented U - a Ukrainian-British Association of screen industry professionals. Click here to see an example of her much acclaimed work
Refugee Week – Day 3
Samira is a 17-year-old Afghan girl who came to the UK in summer of 2021 and moved to Epsom in May 2022. She is a gifted artist and doing a dressmaking course at college. EERN provided her with a sewing machine and one of our volunteers helped her learn how to use it (as she had never used an electric machine before). Within 2 weeks she had made 4 traditional Afghan dresses and she hopes to become a professional tailor.
Samira has been working very hard at her English, supported by EERN, and was very pleased to pass her driving theory test first time!
Refugee Week – Day 4
Helin Konyar was studying singing at Kiev Municipal Academy of Circus and Variety Arts when, at the age of 20, she had to leave Kyiv last May. When she arrived here, she auditioned for the famous Laine Theatre Art College in Epsom and was awarded a 3-year scholarship. This week she appeared in her first show at Epsom Playhouse.
Refugee Week – Day 5
Yuliia Komyshan is a professional bandura player from Poltava, Ukraine (a bandura is a Ukrainian plucked-string folk-instrument). She has degrees from Poltava Professional College of Arts and from Glinka Dnipropetrovsk Academy of Music and a PhD in Educational and Pedagogical Sciences.
Yuliia came to the UK when the war started in Ukraine. She dreams of introducing people all over the world to the interesting and rich Ukrainian culture and traditions. She loves giving people the opportunity to listen to the bandura and to connect with Ukrainian musical culture, both traditional and modern. She performs at concerts whenever she can.
Yuliia says that she is very grateful to the government, sponsors, volunteers and new friends for the support which she has received here.
Refugee Week - Day 6
Sofia Ziatyk is a 20 year-old graphic design student who was always passionate about art. In Ukraine she studied at the Lviv National Academy of Arts to become a graphic designer but had to flee in May 2022 after the Russian invasion. Sofia arrived with a host in Banstead and EERN helped her with university applications and she was given a place at the University of Arts London at the Chelsea College of Arts and Design, recognised as the number 2 in graphic design in world.
Here you can see one of her works reflecting Ukrainian culture. You can also see a short film which she made showing her story and the difficulties that are happening in her life here.
Refugee Week - Day 7
Halyna Volchenkova is from Kyiv and was 70 when she had to flee Ukraine. She had been a teacher for 45 years and helped create government teaching programmes at the Institute of Pedagogy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Halyna is learning English at the Epsom Refugee Network hub, where she attends every day and she joined the Ukrainian choir that EERN formed which she really enjoys.
Leaving her comfortable life in Ukraine, her home, her work, her loved ones, she is very appreciative of the sensitivity and kindness of the British people who helped her. As a hobby she loves to knit and crochet so she wanted to thank these people by knitting and crocheting things that she could give as gifts. Here are examples of some of her amazing handiwork.