Throughout our lives there have been famines, floods, natural disasters and conflict situations that we have felt helpless to do anything about but send money. When Russia invaded Ukraine and their women and children were encouraged to seek safety abroad, the ‘Homes for Ukrainians’ scheme was set up and we realised that here was something practical we could do. We had only recently moved to Devon from London, were semi-retired and had room in our house.

We are so grateful to the Exeter Diocese and in particular to the Archdeacon, Nick Shutt and his team, for setting up a system of matching and introducing families from Ukraine seeking refuge and people in this area prepared to host. We initially offered to take a medical student in her mid-twenties, but her mother and younger sister decided they needed to come with her, so for eight months now, we have shared our home and life with this family of three.

We live in Walkhampton, about a mile out of Yelverton with no shop and only a limited bus service. It could have been a bit isolated for just one Ukrainian family, but luckily there were other people in the village who wanted to host and others who couldn’t host but wanted to offer support. This meant we have had a good network to call on for lifts into Tavistock and for organising community events such as the Walkhampton Warm Welcome evening, every Thursday.

Highlights and lowlights? It has been a privilege to get to know our guests and to learn something about their lives in Ukraine – a place we knew very little about. We have compared and shared our different traditions for celebrating Christmas and birthdays, music, food, gardening, and patterns of everyday life. It has worked for us because our three guests are good fun, kind, generous and very sensitive about our needs and preferences. It has been wonderful to have help in the garden and with projects in the house and community. Seeing the ten-year old blossom at school and improve her English amazingly quickly has been great, and we are full of admiration for how her sister has persisted with pursuing a medical career, and how their mother selflessly takes care of them.

As summer changed to autumn, and the weather confined us to being indoors much more, we found we needed to adjust some of our arrangements for amicably living together. Not really a lowlight, because the issues were easily resolved in an honest discussion with practical solutions – like buying another fridge! We still don’t agree on bedtimes for our youngest guest and the layout of the house causes some minor issues, but we certainly would repeat the experience and we feel we have benefitted in many ways we could not have anticipated.

With the anniversary approaching, all our hopes for an early end to the war have receded and our guests are looking realistically at staying longer in the UK. Both our adult guests are working, and now, with the help and support from West Devon Council’s team of Becky and Steve, we are helping them to look for a home of their own to rent in this area. We will enjoy seeing them establish their own home and we will certainly be their first guests, as we have forged a lasting friendship from sharing our home and lives in this way.