As the war in Ukraine approaches its 70th day, we can look back at the tragedies and the wins that have ensued, taking note of the collective efforts trying to right the wrongdoings of the aggressor. Multiple celebrities, public figures and ordinary people have united in the goal to help the Ukrainian people in any which way possible, whether through donations or opening the doors to their homes in order to provide shelter. As has been the case with Benedict Cumberbatch.
The actor has recently come forth to say that he’s expecting a Ukrainian family to arrive in Britain soon and that they’ll be staying with him at his home. We’ll get into the details of the story soon, but I would like to point out that the efforts of hundreds of thousands of people who’ve done the same are not less important than one celebrity's good deed. And, at the same time, let’s not diminish the goodness of actions just based on the name and stature in society of the person committing them. Now let’s dive into it.
Benedict Cumberbatch, a British actor, has joined hundreds of thousands of others and opened his home to host a Ukrainian family fleeing the war
Image credits: Gage Skidmore
Benedict Cumberbatch is a 45-year-old British actor who became a household name with his role as Sherlock Holmes in the British television series called Sherlock, and who continued on a path of great success with roles in Oscar-nominated or winning films, such as War Horse and 12 Years a Slave.
At the very beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war, he’d expressed his support for Ukrainian people in a Sky News interview and was prepared to help out in any way he could. “Everyone needs to do as much as they can,” he said, acknowledging the record numbers of people volunteering to take people into their homes, hoping he could be part of that. And it seems his wish to do that is now coming to fruition.
He'd been wishing to help out, saying: “I want to give them some stability after the turmoil that they've experienced, and that's within my home"
Image credits: Sam
Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, April 26, at the London premiere of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Benedict revealed that he's waiting on a family that he’ll be hosting with the help of the nonprofit Refugees at Home. He revealed that they’d made it out of Ukraine and that he was checking up on their progress daily.
"Sadly, they are undergoing some medical treatment,” Benedict stated, not wanting to go into too much detail as to what’s happened or when they’re due to arrive as it would be an “invasion of their privacy” and his own. He continued to say: “I want to give them some stability after the turmoil that they've experienced, and that's within my home."
Cumberbatch also revealed that he'd “been trying to help other Ukrainian families - nationals that are UK citizens - to house their extended families en masse, which you know they want to do, but it's very costly." Thus, he’d been aiding them financially, so that people could be brought to safety.
Even with the practical and financial aid, Benedict believes that there's still a ways to go in offering support
Image credits: Gage Skidmore
Financial and practical help are incredibly important, however, the human factor should not be ignored, as support is needed in other ways as well. "I'm working through a wonderful charity called Refugees at Home, which is a great gateway to the government scheme, but also to offering further wider support that's needed for the psychological trauma that these people are suffering from," Cumberbatch said.
"However gentle and generous and welcoming we are as hosts, we don't have the skills of the mental health professions to necessarily deal with those things."
He added that, "I would urge people to seek out further help to bolster their efforts, and people are doing an amazing amount - it makes me very proud, very, very proud of our country and very proud of what we can be at our best as a human race."
Regardless, he's incredibly proud of "what we can be at our best as a human race," seeing the thousands of Brits offering aid and support
Image credits: Gage Skidmore
And there is ample reason to be proud. According to the United Nations, people on the move, whether they are refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs) or migrants, are particularly vulnerable to a range of human rights violations, including violations of the right to adequate housing.
Displaced persons are also particularly vulnerable to discrimination, racism and xenophobia, which can further interfere with their ability to secure sustainable and adequate living conditions. Thus, having people voluntarily inviting refugees and providing them with housing is an incredible gift of solidarity and humanity.
The war has taken thousands of lives and uprooted millions of others, the hostilities continuing without a clear end
Image credits: Mikhail Volkov
As reported by The Guardian, more than 100,000 Britons offered to take in Ukrainian refugees at the beginning of March, as the war was a few weeks in. The website for registering interest in the scheme crashed for a short while because of the numbers offering help. Not to mention the thousands of people in neighboring countries to Ukraine that have done the same. It is truly a wonderful sight to see that after a pandemic that has brought us further apart from each other than anything before, we’re still able to willingly help people in need.
However, things aren’t ever as easy as they seem. As people continue to flee their home country, available housing is running low. According to LRT, Lithuania’s main cities are running out of options for refugees, and municipalities are calling on the central government to consider compensation mechanisms for homeowners who are hosting Ukrainians, as it might be months upon months that support is required, and with prices rising, it may soon become too much.
People have been trying to do their best in supporting Ukrainians at this trying time, but it's not been smooth sailing, to say the least
Image credits: David Peinado
Similarly to Lithuania, Notes from Poland has reported that the influx of Ukrainian refugees is causing a housing shortage, further pushing up already record-high rental prices, fueled by inflation and high energy bills. And lastly, the UK’s Homes for Ukraine scheme has faced much criticism over visa delays and the potential danger of human trafficking, as people were desperately turning to social media to find sponsors that would help them escape war.
As reported by Daily Mail, some homeowners have been rejected by the Homes for Ukraine scheme because they have plug sockets that are 'too low' or garden ponds. Radio 4's World at One, presenter Sarah Montague, said: “There's some things that we have heard about, for example, people being told that they need to drain their ponds if they have a child coming and that this might hold up the process. Is that sort of thing really stopping somebody coming from a war zone?”
One Ukrainian mother, Iryna Ovchar, told Daily Mail that she’d hoped the process would be streamlined because “anything is better than a cold bunker,” as she spends her days in a concrete basement with her daughter.
The humanitarian issue is incredibly complex, with many twists and turns, yet, one thing must be remembered - innocent people are suffering
Image credits: Алесь Усцінаў
It is clear that the humanitarian issue is incredibly complex, with many twists and turns. What matters most are the people suffering and losing their lives and we can only hope that that becomes the priority. Whether quick housing solutions can be built and provided, the requirements for hosting simplified, and for Ukrainians to be able to get back on their feet in terms of work, it’s mostly down to the governments.
That doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about it, though! I will leave a list of resources if you’d like to support Ukraine here.
We continue to observe the war and offer support in any which way we can, with hopes of this nightmare finally coming to an end
Image credits: Alisdare Hickson
Since the first interview at the beginning of March, his words still ring true and call for action from us all: “I'm standing side by side with my brothers and sisters who are going through this, but we all need to do more than wear a badge."
"We have brothers and sisters who are suffering in our industry who are in Ukraine, or have managed to escape it, whose homes and families are at risk. Civilians at large are being shelled and shot at and killed and made homeless, without power, without water, without food. It is a really shocking time to be a European two and a half hours' flight away from Ukraine, and it's something that hangs over us."
Leave us your thoughts in the comments below and we continue to observe the war and support those that need it the most.
People have praised Benedict for this kind act. Leave us your thoughts in the comments!
