Hir fu’ch taith a mawr eich ofnau
Ond cewch yma groeso Cymru;
Boed ich orffwys ‘nawr o’r diwedd,
Boed ich gennym hafan hedd.

Diolch yn fawr iawn Dafydd Morris for this beautiful verse

I just love this picture, created by one on young people here in Llandudno. For me, it reminds me of ‘hiraeth’. A word untranslatable, as it has no comparable essence in other languages and cultures.

I am not a Welsh language expert or even speaker! However, I have been in Wales for over 50 years and was introduced to hiraeth 50 years ago when I met some Welsh folks in Ibiza. Although they were there on holiday, they had this longing for home, a connection that was almost tangible within their soul and spirit.

Within the context of the Ukrainian crisis and preparing our communities for welcoming and making our Ukrainian guests feel at home, I began to reflect on ’hiraeth’. We long for those displaced by war, driven from their homes, to quickly feel that they are no longer guests, but part of our communities, able to thrive and be fully involved on our lives and businesses.

As a Geography teacher, a geographical principle came to mind. Communities have the solutions to their own challenges within them. As a charity we engage people in finding innovative ways to overcome their barriers and increase a sense of well being, and discover a quality of life upgrade.

So, I thought: “Many of the needs of the Ukrainian People in Wales can be best met by Ukrainians themselves” and I wrote this:

We understand that as the many people from Ukraine come to Wales, they will have a deep sense of longing for their homes and their homeland. Our desire is that they feel so welcome, and have such a deep sense of belonging, that when they return to Ukraine, to visit or to resettle, they have hiraeth for the land this word belongs to.

Working within our local communities, we are actively exploring ways to discover the ‘Hiraeth Effect’.