Providing shelter and safety

The community foundations that will each be receiving grants of up to £50,000 from the Freemasons are:

• Community Foundation Wales

• East End Community Foundation

• Essex Community Foundation

• Sussex Community Foundation

• Hampshire & Isle of Wight Community Foundation

• Heart of England Community Foundation

• Community Foundation for Surrey

• Kent Community Foundation

• Community Foundations for Lancashire and Merseyside

• Hertfordshire Community Foundation

Rosemary Macdonald, CEO at UK Community Foundations, said, ‘We’re very grateful to the Freemasons’ charity for their generous grant. It will provide a major boost to local charities that are doing so much to welcome Ukrainians into their communities. It’s the small, grassroots charities and groups that know their local areas that are best able to listen to new arrivals and help them find the resources and assistance they need.’

More than 100,000 Ukrainians have been given shelter by British families with government support, but many of those were six-month arrangements that are now coming to an end. As a result, many of them have faced homelessness since winter began.

Nearly 150,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the UK since February 2022 – just a fraction of the estimated eight million Ukrainians who have fled their country. A further eight million people have been internally displaced inside Ukraine.

Thousands of Ukrainian people living in communities across England and Wales will receive practical help, thanks to another £500,000 grant from the Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF, the Freemasons’ charity), in partnership with UK Community Foundations.

This follows a previous grant of £500,000 awarded in April 2022 that was split equally between UNICEF UK, Plan International UK, The Refugee Council, British Red Cross, and UK for UNHCR – the UN refugee agency – to assist Ukrainian refugees on the ground in Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Moldova. Another separate donation of £50,000 was made shortly after the Russian invasion in February 2022.

This latest grant means that Freemasons have given more than £1 million to people who have fled Ukraine since the war began.

The new programme of grants will see 10 community foundations in the UK supporting local charities and community organisations that are actively providing immediate aid for people arriving from Ukraine, as well as those who are developing longer-term support for the integration of Ukrainians already here.

Les Hutchinson, Chief Executive of the Masonic Charitable Foundation, said, ‘I’m pleased we’ve been able to provide substantial assistance to Ukrainians in need across the country. There has been an unprecedented wave of support for Ukrainians from the British public, but there is a great deal more that needs to be done. These are people who have left everything behind in a country suffering the effects of a devastating war and I’m proud the help Freemasons have provided has now exceeded £1 million.’

The MCF is thankful for the generosity of Freemasons in making a positive, long-term difference, not only to the lives of people in our local communities, but further afield.