The mayor of Arona, José Julián Mena, together with the Councilor for Security, Francisco Marichal; the Councilor for Citizen Participation, Ruth Lorenzo, and the Councilor for Tourism, José Alberto Delgado, received the Ukrainian Association Oberig de Tenerife in the Plenary Hall of the Arona Town Hall.
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The representatives of Oberig, Ukrainians living on the island, told the mayor about the housing problems that their fellow citizens are experiencing who had come to Tenerife as tourists and who, overnight, have become refugees. About a hundred people are in this situation, families with children who do not know where to go.
Likewise, the Association is organizing itself to collect and send medicines and other necessities to its fellow citizens, for which they need logistical help.
The mayor of Arona conveyed the “total” willingness of the City Council to provide all the help it can offer within its possibilities. Likewise, Mena emphasized the need for collaboration and coordination of the different institutions within their powers “in order to provide a solution to the housing situation of the Ukrainian men and women who are currently in Tenerife in a real limbo that, so long ago, only eight days, it was unthinkable”.
275 Ukrainian citizens currently reside in Arona, who are currently very concerned about their families and friends, trapped in a war that has already caused more than a million refugees.
On the other hand, early on Thursday, both Mena and the Councilor for Sports, Francisco Marichal, went to the Antonio Domínguez Stadium to visit the members of the National Judo Team of Ukraine and express the solidarity and support of the Aronero people to the Ukrainian before the invasion of Russia.
The 17 members of the team, including athletes and coaches, arrived in Tenerife on February 22, two days before the conflict began. They came to Arona for the same reason that all the teams from different sports modalities come at this time: to escape from the European cold and to be able to train outdoors thanks to the mild climate that exists all year round in Arona.
The girls and boys who make up the Ukrainian national judo team are between 18 and 25 years old and this week they will return to their country. Some today, others tomorrow, although they still do not know how they will enter Ukraine.
