Empowering Ukraine refugees with Marianna Vaszilyliv

Meet the Mancunian -10.4-Marianna Vaszliyiv- transcript

Intro

[00:00:00] Hello listeners, and welcome to Season 10 of the Meet the Mancunian podcast, social impact stories from Manchester. I'm your host, Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe, offering you a warm Mancunian welcome. I'm delighted to bring to you Season 10, where I celebrate social impact community heroes across Manchester.

[00:00:19] I hope, dear listener, you can learn from their life experiences, the challenges they have overcome, and their passion for their cause. My aim for the Meet the Mancunian podcast is to inspire you to live your life with purpose and impact, inspired by the stories my guests share every Tuesday throughout the season.

[00:00:38] You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or my website meetthemancunian.co.uk

Meet Marianna Vaszliyiv: Championing Ukrainian Refugees

[00:00:44] Welcome to the fourth episode of Season 10 of the Meet the Mancunian podcast, social impact stories from Manchester.

[00:00:51] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Passionate about supporting Ukraine refugees? We hear from Marianna Vasilev, co-founder and project lead, United for Ukraine in this episode.

[00:01:01] In Marianna's own words

[00:01:03] Marianna Vaszliyiv: But at the end of the day, when you receive a message, thank you for changing my life. Thank you for doing this for me. I wouldn't manage without you. It is amazing. It matters. It does matter. And it helps driving. It helps moving further, and it helps encouraging our participants in return.

[00:01:22] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you, Marianna, for joining me today.

[00:01:24] Marianna Vaszliyiv: Thank you very much, Deepa, for inviting. It's an honour for me to be here and talking about what I do, my passion, share my thoughts and my opinions on my work and maybe potentially find more partners or people who want to join us and do something great together.

[00:01:40] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Absolutely. And that is exactly the aim of the podcast. We hope we can help you with your goals through our wonderful listener community.

Marianna's Journey: From Teacher to Advocate

[00:01:49] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What sparked your interest in working with the refugee community? Where did that come from? Is there any defining moments you want to share in your journey?

[00:01:57] Marianna Vaszliyiv: Initially was not really my passion as it is because as per my first degree, I'm a teacher of English, French and special educational needs. And I've been working in various schools in Ukraine, Poland and the UK for many years. And I was hoping to get retired in this role.

[00:02:15] But then the war started in Ukraine in 2022. Russia invaded Ukraine, full scale invasion happened, and I am Ukrainian. Was ready to step in and do something for my compatriots and people of Ukraine. We knew that this visa route be introduced in the UK. And we would be expecting a lot of Ukrainians to come to the UK.

[00:02:41So naturally, I wanted to do something. I want to be serving my people. I wanted to be helping those who are lost in these circumstances, those who are unwillingly left their country with anything behind them.

[00:02:57] ] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Starting with your journey as a teacher and then wanting to serve the people who've been impacted by the invasion. And also, by having to migrate perhaps without any notice and, leaving family or loved ones behind.United for Ukraine: Mission and Services

[00:03:13] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: You're the co founder and the project lead for United for Ukraine. What is that about? What does it do now?

[00:03:19] Marianna Vaszliyiv: In March 2022, businesses across the North West gathered together and started sharing the ideas on how to support Ukrainian refugees arriving to the UK. What kind of professional support can they be offered?

[00:03:35] And this is how I joined the team of great professionals as Ukrainian speaker, a kind of advisor on mental differences, language skills, skills in general, labour market, both in Ukraine and the UK.

[00:03:50] And that was my joining in for three months. But then it's been three years now since I joined the team, and I generated a lot of different things as a part of the team. And managed to become a project lead at the moment. This is my passion. This is what I'm doing with all my heart, my skills and my expertise. This is what I'm enjoying doing.

[00:04:13] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: It's lovely that you actually joined for a short term, but your passion has kept you going now for almost three years.

[00:04:21] So tell us a little more about what does United for Ukraine offer to Ukrainian refugees in the UK?

[00:04:28] Marianna Vaszliyiv: So United for Ukraine was launched as just an informational platform with a lot of vacancies where employers, potential employers could have posted their vacancies for free and any Ukrainians could find this information online. On vacancies courses and any additional services we managed to invite to take part in.

[00:04:52] But then we grew and then we have grown to the team of five people at the moment supporting Ukrainians. We developed our services and now at the moment, we offer employment services. We support Ukrainians into employment. We support them with applying for different jobs seeking for job opportunities, apprenticeship, shadowing, internship, reskilling, upskilling.

[00:05:16] We approach different partners trying to convince them that Ukrainians are a good workforce and a real asset to any business and bring a lot of different useful things to any business structure or company. And this is how we developed this project.

[00:05:35] It is still pilot. Because we cannot expect how it's going to be working in a year or so. Because we were giving ourselves three months and then three months again, then again, half a year. But then it came to the point where we are still growing. And recently we have invited one more key worker to our team. And we have an enormous number of requests on a daily basis. We still have a lot of employers interested in joining and offering their work to Ukrainians joining our initiative, which is amazing.

[00:06:11] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I can see that this is so important. And, to help people settle in a new country, nothing like finding work. And just very hard to do and finding meaningful work is so important.

Overcoming Challenges: Bias and Language Barriers

[00:06:22] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Are there some obstacles you've had to overcome in this journey over the last three years you want to share with listeners?

[00:06:28] Marianna Vaszliyiv: Yes, we did have some obstacles from the very beginning. The first one was bias attitude from some of the employers when we were trying to convince that you have to hire these people because they are a real asset to what you do. And they were conscious about language level. They were conscious about differences in mentality, but we managed to break that.

[00:06:55] Because before the Great War, Ukrainians were seen as a part of Russia for a lot of people. But now clearly, we are Ukrainians and people in Great Britain know who Ukrainians are. And they see the differences between Russians and Ukrainians. And now we have more warm attitude towards employees taking on board. They have more trust in them. Which is amazing and we managed to break this attitude, which is great at this point.

[00:07:29] If we talk about some wider obstacles, I would mention language barrier. So this is something we work on because some people do have a decent level of English coming to the UK. And they just need a kind of introductory course to join the business, but some of them do have higher qualification. They have skills, they have expertise, but their English is on a very low level.

[00:07:53] That's why we are trying along with employment support. We try to find courses and partners who can provide our participants with a good level of upskilling in English. And we approached many language schools, language providers across the UK. And many of them do offer a tailored support. For example, if we are talking about medical sphere, we offer ESOL plus medical. If it is about some admin jobs, a receptionist or any related, this can be ESOL plus admin vocabulary, or at least a part of the course should be covering some of the topics. This can be for construction as well.

[00:08:33] We have some men, even though they are not allowed to leave the country, we do have men those who were allowed to leave due to some personal circumstances. We have some construction providers who agreed to incorporate ESOL element into their courses. For example, they are doing NVQ level 1, 2 and higher plus ESOL for our customers. And we have a lot of people willing to join these courses. And this is amazing.

Emotional Support and Success Stories

[00:09:01] Marianna Vaszliyiv: A third obstacle, I would mention this is emotional distress of many Ukrainians that arriving to the country. We have a lot of people who arrived from the occupied territories in Ukraine, and you can imagine what they have been through. And they are coming with a lot of PTSD and different related diagnoses. Some of them lost their nearest dearest and they arrived with a backpack just behind, kids and animals and that's it.

[00:09:28] And they think life is over, I'm worth nothing and I won't be managing doing anything in this country and so on. Our task as coaches is to break this disbelief, and we have some great stories that we managed to break there attitude. And a lot of people managed to get some great things in the UK.

[00:09:49] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Those are really big challenges that you're trying to overcome through, meaningful interventions, whether it be the language support, building that trust and familiarity and showing that there are skills and also supporting those who have suffered PTSD and many other mental health challenges. So I can imagine it is a tough task for a small team to do.

[00:10:12] Tell us a little more about the impact that you've made over these three years. You said there is a lot of demand, a lot of positivity. What are the things you'd like to share here?

Impact and Inspirational Stories

[00:10:21] Marianna Vaszliyiv: Oh, I can talk about this for a long time because this is the most rewarding part of my job, seeing the result of my impact, seeing the result of what we do. And this is something that makes me believe that it is worth doing further. Sometimes you do have such moments like I'm giving up, I'm not managing, I can't do this job anymore.

[00:10:45] But at the end of the day, when you receive a message, thank you for changing my life. Thank you for doing this for me. I wouldn't manage without you. It is amazing. It matters. It does matter. And it helps driving. It helps moving further, and it helps encouraging our participants in return. If we talk about some inspirational stories, we do have them a lot.

[00:11:08] We have people who write broken, lost to the UK, but after one, two sessions, they started just clearing up their mind and getting better understanding that they are worth, that they are valuable, that they belong. If they hear they have this chance, to do something and change something in their life.

[00:11:31] We had a lady in her seventies. Coming from Ukraine and joining her daughter here to help her with the grandkids. And she was so charismatic. She was outstanding. Such a character that from the very first glance, I said, I can't see you babysitting, really.

[00:11:50] You're a teacher. You still have a lot of energy. Why don't we try and do something in terms of volunteering job, in terms of changing something in your life and adding, let's say three hours per week when kids are at school, and you still have some time.

[00:12:05] English is okay. She was a teacher, primary teacher, plus English element according to her diploma. We made an application to several local schools as a volunteer. So she started doing a TA [Teaching Assistant] job at school. Three hours, then it grew to 10 hours. Then they expanded this to a temporary contract for 10 hours as a paid TA staff.

[00:12:27] Now she's working full time. She's a TA in one of the primary schools. She's doing a drama club for kids. She's arranging excursions. And she managed to change a lot of things at her school. I bet her daughter is not very happy because she lost a childminder. This is so inspiring because we met this lady at one of the Ukrainian community events and she said, thank you for doing this for me.

[00:12:53] I couldn't even believe that I can find myself in a new country coming here to do a particular job for my family. And now she's she found herself as professional. And this is amazing. And sometimes people do need to be heard. Yes, you can. Yes, you will. And this empowering element does change a lot of lives, which is amazing.

[00:13:19] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you so much for sharing those inspiring stories. And I really like that about yes you can, yes you will. And you know everybody has something to contribute at all age groups. And it's lovely that a 70-year-old lady after many years of service has now found a new way to contribute and volunteer. That is wonderful.

Balancing Personal and Professional Life

[00:13:38] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: When you think about your field, is there something that people often misunderstand?

[00:13:44] Marianna Vaszliyiv: If we talk about British mentality, as I see that people often, in most cases separate personal life and work. This is what I was trying to do throughout my career, but being a very passionate personality, being very emotional and being too responsible sometimes. It is very difficult for me to separate those two things.

[00:14:07] When I was working at school, I was trying just to shut up my laptop and leave. In terms of United for Ukraine now, it is very difficult to keep this balance going because I’m Ukrainian myself. I'm taking part in different events In the Ukrainian community. I'm one of the organisers of a Ukrainian rallies on Saturday in Manchester. I'm activist for charity called Sunflower Manchester as well.

[00:14:33] So we arrange a lot of different events, community events, fairs and whatnot. So we meet our customers there. Sometimes they ask you to tag them via Facebook or Instagram or whatever. As per work, I cannot add anyone to my friend list because this is my work and this is my personal life. Sometimes we do receive calls at seven in the morning, people seeking for support and you can't say no because sometimes these are life changing.

[00:15:02] And sometimes you have to step in and do something. We were involved in different cases connected with some sad stories and when we had to react quickly. And in this case, you take it very personally. And we do have emotional support provided at work. We are mental health first aiders, the whole team of ours. And we learn. We still learn, but I suspect you wouldn't be learning by the end of the life because taking it this closer to yourself, you can't manage, just leave it behind. So it's difficult.

[00:15:34] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I can totally understand. I go through this myself. I'm a very passionate person. I have a lot of volunteering commitments, my podcast. How do you keep your me time and keep yourself going? So I do understand. And it is that resilience that we need to build and our self-care. We do need to put ourselves first sometimes.

How to Support Ukrainian Refugees

[00:15:54] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What's your top tip for somebody trying to make an impact in their community? If people want to support Ukraine refugees in another part of the world or just refugees in general, how should they get started?

[00:16:05] Marianna Vaszliyiv: They should approach Ukrainian community at the first point and get any relevant information from them, what kind of support they need, what they need exactly at this moment, what have been done? Ideally, what could have been done better, what can they offer and so on.

[00:16:24] Then second, they have to understand what impact they want to make educational, employment, humanitarian advisory, whatever. So, this idea should be shaped. What exactly I want to help with? Whether I want to donate some money to some charities and forget about that or to take part in in some processes and events. For example, we have a lot of British people joining us for Saturday rallies, every single week and they are more Ukrainians than some Ukrainians. You need to have a clear understanding what you want to do, why you want to do, and what is the outcome of your work. This is about some extra work on top of what you do, volunteering.

[00:17:06] If we talk about a wider impact in a professional term, we do welcome a lot of employers who want to offer jobs to Ukrainians across the UK because we have a huge database of Ukrainians, more than I will say 8, 000 looking for a job. We match professionals with employers.

[00:17:27] And if anyone has got any jobs to post, they can do that. They can approach us and we'll be very happily welcoming them. They can offer courses. We are in constant seek of partners. And we do have some incredible ideas, how to develop something amazing in the UK.

[00:17:46] For example, at one of the meetings, we met a person who is involved in nuclear power research in the UK this is, that was just an informal chat and it grew up to sending 10 nuclear power engineers to them to take part in the project, and one of them is now the team lead are leading the research.

[00:18:07] This is not my sphere, but this is just an occurrence that we met this person and we managed to change something for them. And for people who we sign posts to, which is great.

[00:18:20] So whoever wants to join, we do welcome everyone. And please do support us because this is their fight for freedom, and this is the fight for democracy, not only for Ukraine, but for the whole world, because evil should not prevail. And if we fall, potentially Europe will be the next.

[00:18:42] And as Ukrainians are very grateful to all the United Kingdom, to all the British people for opening their hearts and homes, for letting displaced Ukrainians into their homes and helping us financially, emotionally, with all their hearts. We do appreciate that. We do value your support, and this is unwavering support on all the stages of our fight since the war started. It is incredible. Thank you very much.

[00:19:13] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Something that people feel very passionately about and absolutely, like you said, it's also like a fight for freedom for the whole world.

[00:19:20] An opportunity for you to talk about anything that I haven't asked you about, anything coming up.

[00:19:25] Marianna Vaszliyiv: I will never be tired to say thank you again to all those who support and to any potential supporters who will join us because we do have people who continue keeping us in their mind, helping, coming to ask what help they might offer. Those who still accept Ukrainians in their homes. We are very grateful.

[00:19:50] We are grateful to all the MPs, local MPs, political figures who are on our side and fighting with us. And we are grateful to the employers and potential employers. We welcome anyone potentially who can be supporting us and join us professionally or personally. You want to contribute, find us and we'll navigate you and signpost you to, to someone who can tell you more about your involvement in this good cause.

[00:20:17] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I hope many people come forward from listening to the podcast.

Signature Questions and Closing Thoughts

[00:20:21] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I'm now going to move to the signature questions that I ask all my guests. And the first one for you is. What makes Manchester a unique place for social impact work?

[00:20:31] Marianna Vaszliyiv: Have been living in London for seven years. And then I moved to the north to Manchester and now this is my third year living in this wonderful, favourite amazing, striving, vibing city in the UK. It stole my heart and it is very unique in all the senses. It is professionally very well developed.

[00:20:56] It's not that scattered as London and whatever you need in a professional way, you've got everything in one place. You have a lot of leading businesses, country leading businesses gathered here. And I know more and more businesses moving to Manchester, which is amazing. This is a great city for youth. As a mom of kids. this is something amazing.

[00:21:17] This city is absolutely has managed to gather everything you need for life. And the most important thing is people -people of Manchester and people of the north. And I'm very proud to be a part of this community. And I'm very proud to be belonging here. And this is something really incredible.

[00:21:39] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: We hear a lot, and I experience that myself. Again, like you, three years in Manchester, wonderful supportive community and people are really special.

[00:21:49] If you could have dinner with any historical figure in Manchester, who would it be with and why?

[00:21:55] Marianna Vaszliyiv: I would have an honour to invite for a dinner a lady called Emmeline Pankhurst, which is a very famous suffragette and a fighter for women's rights, not only in England, but in the UK. And I would say in the whole world, because we knew about her in Europe, we knew about this lady. I knew about her a long time before I moved to the UK.

[00:22:21] And working with women myself and empowering them. I do use these ideas as a driving force to make people believe that they can, especially women after they are arriving to the UK, being totally, completely lost in their lives and having to do something and raising their kids.

[00:22:40] So that this lady was amazing figure, and she was very inspiring and definitely I would be asking her a lot of questions. What drove you to do a lot of things which ran long before the era she lived in, where she found strength to fight for her rights and the rights of her peers. And I would say how incredible she was, to be as a heroine, even of the modern world, because it is important.

[00:23:12] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: She is definitely very inspiring, and I love that you want to ask her about how she found her strength to keep going because these are not sprints. These are marathons that you're trying to do.

[00:23:22] If you want to create a social impact superhero, what powers would they have and what cause would they fight for?

[00:23:32] Marianna Vaszliyiv: If you talk about superheroes, anyone can be superhero and possessing different strengths and different powers. But I would say that should be a superhero with the power of speaking and a power of convincing. What I found out in these years recently that strength is in you. Strength is in yourself itself, but you just need to find a key. You just need to engine to make you start. And the right words can make you either fall or stand, either believe or lose your belief. And this is very important.

[00:24:13] And we as key workers, sometimes are told we are heroes. I don't believe that I'm a hero. I'm just doing my job. What I found out a power of speaking, a power of convincing makes you believe and makes you move and fight. This is very important.

[00:24:30] This is about some realistic superpowers, but if we talk about something whimsical, I would say then power to heal, because a lot of pain is now in the modern world. A lot of suffering, a lot of diseases, incurable at this point. So definitely we do need a power of heal. Again, we can heal with the words, but sometimes it's not enough and we have to fight with these things in our life as well, so I would use just these two things.

[00:25:03] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: This thing about words having power, it's so important. And you're absolutely right. It can help uplift you or it can allow you to, not feel great. And also, like you said, that power to actually heal when people are hurting or physically in bad health.

[00:25:21] What's the most important life lesson you've learned so far?

[00:25:25] Marianna Vaszliyiv: I had a lot of lessons in my life. I had a lot of painful lessons in my life and the most important lesson is to be a human whatever you have to face with, whatever you have to be challenged with you have to be staying human.

[00:25:46] I lost some of the friends recently. I lost some of the people who were very close to me. And but I managed to gain some new people fighting with me, my fight, for my country, for myself. And some of them did not pass the lesson of challenges, the challenge of fame, the challenge of being famous the lesson of being a good friend.

[00:26:12] You have to be a human, you have to be a human in any circumstances, no matter what your opponent is trying to do, no matter how they going to hurt you, because there are a lot of people who will hurt you, who hurt you in the past. But you have to be a human and don't make yourself to their level, just keep your heart and keep going.

[00:26:34] And just think, it just came to my mind that If poem by Rudyard Kipling, and whether you know it. So that was my favourite poem when I was a student. I might not remember all the lines, but still I used to love this poem.

[00:26:49] And if you have time, you can just read it. If you can keep your head when all about you. This era is a historical era, and it is very important to keep your head when people are trying to bend you, when people are trying to challenge you, when people are deceiving you. It is very important. To be a human.

[00:27:07] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I just absolutely love that. You expressed it so beautifully. And I think of friendship as, friends are sometimes in your life for a reason, particular reason that you come together, a season maybe something time sensitive, and sometimes a lifetime. And not everybody, like you said, stays a lifetime. And those few people we cherish a lot, but sometimes there's good reasons why people come together as well. Really beautiful.

[00:27:35] If you want to read the Rudyard Kipling poem?

[00:27:38] Marianna Vaszliyiv: I'll be happy to. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

[00:27:41] This is a poem called If by Rudyard Kipling. 

[00:27:44] If you can keep your head when all about you

[00:27:47] are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

[00:27:51] if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

[00:27:56] but make allowance for their doubting too;

[00:27:59] If you can wait, and not be tired by waiting,

[00:28:02] or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

[00:28:06] Or being hated, don't give way to hating.

[00:28:09] And yet, don't look too good, nor talk too wise.

[00:28:13] If you can dream and not make dreams your master.

[00:28:17] If you can think and not make thoughts your aim.

[00:28:21] If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

[00:28:25] and treat those two imposters just the same,

[00:28:29] If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken,

[00:28:32] twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

[00:28:36] Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken.

[00:28:41] And stoop and build them up with worn out tools.

[00:28:45] If you can make one heap of all your winnings

[00:28:49] and risk it on the turn of pitch-and-toss

[00:28:52] and lose, and start again at your beginnings

[00:28:56] and never breath a word about your loss;

[00:28:59] if you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

[00:29:03] to serve your turn long after they are gone,

[00:29:06] and so hold on when there is nothing in you.

[00:29:09] Except the will which says to them, 'Hold on'!

[00:29:14] if you can talk with crowd and keep your virtue,

[00:29:19] Or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch,

[00:29:23] If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

[00:29:27] If all men count with you, but none too much;

[00:29:31] If you can fill the unforgiving minute

[00:29:34] With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

[00:29:38] Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,

[00:29:43] and -which is more- you'll be a Man, my son.

[00:29:47] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Beautiful. It's one of my favourite poems as well. And one of my early bosses shared it when he was leaving and it still gives me goosebumps. So thank you so much for sharing that. And I'm sure it, it'll inspire even more listeners maybe to rediscover. I think maybe 50, a hundred years down the line, it's still so feels so true.

[00:30:10] How can interested people reach out to you and learn more? Where can they find your website or social media?

[00:30:17] Marianna Vaszliyiv: We are trying to be everywhere, but we do not have a dedicated person dealing with the media stuff because we are a nonprofit project. We are trying to keep this going. So we have Instagram page called United for Ukraine. We have Facebook page called United for Ukraine, and we have a website called United for Ukraine.org uk. And there is a form to contact us. There's a telephone number.

[00:30:42] So if you're not replying, there is an email address, or there is a form to leave a message. We do receive them. We do reply to all the messages, and we try to keep it going, but sometimes we have some backlog of the answers due to a huge amount of customers trying to get our support and us trying to help them. Please keep in touch. Please do contact us and please do support us. This is very important.

[00:31:11] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I'll make sure it's in the show notes so people can find it very easily when they're listening to the podcast as well.

[00:31:18] Is there a funny or a heartwarming story you want to share with listeners to end the podcast?

[00:31:23] Marianna Vaszliyiv: We do have a lot of different stories talking about showing the personality of customers we work with. We have some great stories when the lady again trying to find work and she came here, highly qualified, but a very low level of English. And we sent her to ESOL courses, we sent her to intensive English communication club. And she started working as a cleaner, having three higher educations from Ukraine. She started working as a cleaner. And that was a sports club in Greater Manchester, and she was cleaning premises.

[00:31:59] And that was an occurrence when she was hoovering the floor and one man was trying to cross the charging cable. And she started talking with him quite in a harsh voice. Where are you going? I'm working. You should not be trespassing health and safety just with a very limited amount of vocabulary. That'd be like. No, not going health and safety. So key words, health and safety. And he trying to explain her something.

[00:32:27] She didn't understand him. And then she told him, go away. Which he did. But the very next morning, she was invited to see her manager and the person trying to trespass the premises was the CEO of the company who received a go away from her, but she was so expressive. She was so convincing.

[00:32:48] So she was offered an admin assistant job. She was asked to send her CV. She had the kind of walk around with the manager around the premises asking what else you would like to do rather than being a cleaner. And now she's working as admin in one of these Greater Manchester sports complexes, which is amazing.

[00:33:12] Because she had a sleepless night, she had such a painful reflection on what she did because she thought that I would be fired. I would be expelled from the country saying, go away to CEO, a person who is managing 300 something people. But then eventually she found a job. And she was spotted, and she was received a good welcome there.

[00:33:34] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That is wonderful and speaks to the company's culture as well that they really respected her passion and ownership that she showed for her cleaner role that she could bring that to other parts of the business.

[00:33:46] Marianna Vaszliyiv: Health and safety to be followed. Yes, it's important too.

[00:33:50] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Everything is important. Where would we be if we didn't have people to help us with these things? So thank you so much. It's been lovely to speak to you today.

[00:34:00] Marianna Vaszliyiv: Thank you very much for inviting. I had a joy speaking to you. So if you do have any more requests or invitations, please do share with us. We are happy to come. Thank you very much.

Outro

[00:34:10] Marianna. I really enjoyed learning about championing Ukraine refugees today. Dear listener, thank you so much for listening to the fourth episode of the Meet the Mank Union podcast season 10. I hope today's episode has inspired you to make positive change wherever you live.

[00:34:28] Tune in every Tuesday for a new episode or log on to meetthemancunian.co.uk to listen to all the episodes and learn more about my podcasting story.

[00:34:38] Next week on Tuesday, 18th March 2025, I speak to Simon Owen about supporting the environment.

[00:34:46] It's wonderful to hear from you, dear listener. You can share your story or send me a message on my website meetthemancunian.co.uk or on social media @MeettheMancunian on Instagram, Facebook and Blue Sky and @MeettheMancunianpodcast on YouTube.

[00:35:06] Thank you to my wonderful community of listeners. Remember your voice, your story and your actions matter. Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and let's inspire even more positive change. To a better, kinder world, and until next time, let's continue making Manchester and beyond a place of greater impact, compassion and action.