Dunedin brothers helping refugees

By ODT - Grant Miller | Posted:

Brothers from Dunedin have opened their homes in Bulgaria to Ukrainian refugees and they are eager to do more to help.

Ramifications from the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted Jared Mitchell and his wife to offer assistance and they were soon receiving a series of requests — "Can you help me?"

"We’ve been world travellers and we have people in our house all the time, and our answer was yes," Mr Mitchell said.

"It was just . . . we can help somebody, so we will."

They took in a family of six — spanning three generations — in their home about 50km from the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.

Mr Mitchell’s younger brother, Michael Mitchell, lives in Sofia and he initially housed four refugees, before three of them moved on.

"From us — Michael, my brother, and my wife — we just said we [want to] help as many people as we can," Jared Mitchell said.

That included providing immediate monetary help, buying supplies for a refugee centre and raising money from overseas.

The brothers were born and raised in Dunedin and attended King’s High School.

Michael went straight from school into the IT industry and he has been in Bulgaria for about five years.

Jared gained a degree in computer science at the University of Otago and he and his wife, Katie Eichten Mitchell, moved to Bulgaria about two years ago.

The brothers run the IT company Topvine Consulting and are actively involved with a small non-government organisation of 10 Bulgarian women striving to help the refugees.

More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion started on February 24 and about 70,000 of them have flowed into Bulgaria, one of the poorest countries in Europe.

When Jared Mitchell picked up the Tkachenko family of six, they were "absolutely wiped".

They had spent 10 days in a bunker in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and then travelled for three days.

"For 14 days, they didn’t have a proper meal," Mr Mitchell said.

He shared some information about the Tkachenko family with the Otago Daily Times.

Natalia (51) had survived fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, then Covid-19 in 2020 after a month in intensive care.

She had lived in Kyiv all her life before the war forced her and her family to leave.

She had three daughters — Anastasia (26), Paulina (14) and Christina (12).

Anastasia is a mother of two — Kira (3) and Kiril (4 months).

"They have all grown up in the family house and know no other home," Mr Mitchell said.

Anastasia was in daily contact with her husband, who remained in Ukraine, because he is of fighting age.

Mr Mitchell said they had heard bombing when they were in the bunker and 3-year-old Kira had remained fearful when she heard aircraft overhead.

He wanted the children to feel safe.

Mr Mitchell said a computer software education centre in Sofia had been converted into a big warehouse for refugee supplies and he was keen to get more involved there.

The Open Doors group had been established and its mission was to reduce the consequences of the impending humanitarian catastrophe in Europe.

He and his wife started fund-raising pages on Givealittle and Fundly and each had raised thousands of dollars.

Mr Mitchell said money would help other families who were hosting refugees.

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