A Ukrainian refugee who won a national award recognising his Dundee volunteering efforts has said he wanted to give back to Scotland for helping Ukraine.
Andrii Zhehestovskyi, 43, who volunteers with Libraries and Information Services Dundee, won Volunteer of the Year at the Scottish Charity Awards.
He provides IT support to library customers and supports ESOL groups and other refugees to access library services,
The refugee left his home country a month before the war started and travelled to Sweden seeking a job.
He is from a small town that borders Moldova.
Andrii said: “I decided to come with my friend to Sweden about a month before the war.
“We were there when all this happened.
“We didn’t know what to do. It was really stressful.
“We called our families to find out what was going on.
“Watching news. Listening. It was a terrible feeling. Stressful. Horrible.
“We were nervous all the time.”
Fearing for his family
Unable to return home, Andrii applied through the immigration board as an asylum seeker and arrived in Dundee last July.
He recalls leaving Sweden for London by plane, then arriving in Edinburgh around midnight.
The Ukrainian Hub in Edinburgh sent him to Dundee, where he stayed in the Landmark Hotel.
Andrii then relocated to the Indigo Hotel, which he says meant it was easier to access the job centre, English classes, and other support.
Currently, he lives with a host family in Forfar and hopes to move to Dundee.
With family still in Ukraine, Andrii says he is worried for their safety.
He said: “My old parents are in Ukraine. They are 78 years old.
“I have my older brother’s family there in Ukraine. He lives there with his wife and youngest son.
“My other nephews came to Sweden. I miss them so much. I call them all the time.
“Listening to these terrible stories, the situation, bombing, the whole thing – I feel a lot of stress.
“It’s a big stress. Really hard to deal with this. You fall asleep and wake up with this feeling every day. You try to manage.
“What will be next, what will be tomorrow, in the future. About families and their lives and what will be next.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with family to move from Ukraine. My parents are very conservative. They don’t want to leave.”
“It was my appreciation for what Scotland is doing for Ukrainians”
Before leaving Ukraine, he worked as an IT specialist, a sales manager and a product manager.
Andrii hopes he can stay in Scotland and find a full time IT job.
He said: “The future is difficult to think about and be sure.
“It’s really complicated and difficult to predict.
“I hope things will change for the better. That there will be peace.
“Get past all this terrible stuff.
“My passion is IT. I like to work in IT support. To help people to provide them with technology to do things. I really enjoy it.
“That’s why I decided to go volunteering at the library.
“It was my appreciation for what Scotland is doing for Ukrainians.
“It was the best I could to do to help people in my area and give back.
“Really great team. Really friendly. They support and help me with everything.
“Meg Marr, the volunteer coordinator, does an amazing job for me and she support me with everything and gives me a lot of advice.
“My award wouldn’t be possible without her support. I am so grateful to her.
“It was a big event. It was very exciting. Exciting to win.
“I had support from many people. They were very kind and welcoming. Very supportive. It was a great evening.”
Andrii is enjoying Dundee
Andrii began volunteering in January and currently works in car washing at the Peter Vardy showroom.
He is interested in nature and recently visited Lunan Bay and Forfar Loch, which he says he “really liked”.
He said: “I found this country very nice, friendly. Kind people.
“They do very well for us. We all really appreciate it.
“Dundee is a nice place. Many ancient buildings which I think is quite interesting.
“Our English classes are sometimes at the museum at the V&A museum.”
As well as volunteering, he spends time with the Ukrainian community in Dundee which distracts him from his worries.
Together, they play table tennis and have tried tennis and squash.
Andrii also enjoys learning new languages and is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian.
He practices his English daily and knows some Portuguese and Spanish.
