Who We Are & What We Do

UKUATogether.com is a not for profit which we have set up to accelerate the process of matching, sponsoring and hosting Ukrainian refugees with British sponsors. In particular, we are focused on:

Ensuring the ‘right’ sponsor is found for the ‘right’ family.
Providing coaching, tips and support to sponsor families on sponsoring for visas, supporting and hosting refugees
Providing advice and checklists on how to best get refugee families ‘on their feet

Click on the links below or scroll down to find our more about us and what we do.

Become a UK Sponsor

1. MATCHING

Ensuring the ‘right’ sponsor is found for the ‘right’ family. This is based on the specific requirements of the refugee family (eg; any medical conditions, number of children, availability of driving license etc)

2. VISA COACHING

Providing coaching, tips and support to sponsor families on sponsoring for visas, supporting and hosting refugees (eg; translation services, filling in documentation, directing to the right government bodies, websites and institutions)

3. POST ARRIVAL SUPPORT

Providing advice and checklists on how to best get refugee families ‘on their feet’ (how to access schools, apply for jobs, access NHS, get counselling, sort out bank accounts etc)

HOW WE'LL USE THE DONATIONS

All money donated goes on a mixture of the following for refugee families:

Clothes
Children's toys
School and educational equipment
Prams/ baby beds/baby chairs
Food

Meet the Team

Irene Molodtsov

Irene Molodtsov is a business leader, entrepreneur and a humanitarian.

Irene is the former CEO of Sia Partners UK & Ireland, a management and data science consultancy. Prior to
joining Sia Partners in 2016, she co-founded a business transformation firm Molten before it was sold to Sia
Partners in 2016. At Sia Partners, Irene was responsible for running and growing three offices offering Transformation, Financial, Energy & Utilities and Growth & Innovation services.

Irene is a Governor of South Gloucestershire & Stroud College and sits on various private boards.

Irene is one of five volunteers who set up https://www.oursupport4ukraine.com - a humanitarian initiative that to date has delivered 240 tonnes of aid directly into Ukraine. This aid (food, hygiene, bedding, medical and
other) has been raised in London, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire and transported in 24 tonne lorries into
Lviv, Ukraine.

Irene is a British Citizen, born in Odessa Ukraine. She resides with her husband, two kids, 25 chickens, 4 geese and a dog in Gloucestershire. Irene, together with her parents, left Odessa as a refugee in the 1980s.

Her IG account is @IreneMyLife

Jakub Golata

Jakub is logistics manager working on the HS2 rail project but more recently a humanitarian.

Jakub and his wife Gosia Golata, from Barrow upon Humber, Lincolnshire, emigrated to the UK in 2004 but have returned to Poland to aid humanitarian efforts.

Jakub Golata started by driving refugees in a minibus to and from the Ukrainian border. He then took over the 180-bed hotel near Bydgoszcz, in northern Poland, for those waiting to be re-homed. The purpose of the converted hotel is to act as a "refugee hub" to provide support for those fleeing invasion, supporting them to settle in Poland or elsewhere in Europe. More recently, he's been helping Ukrainian families to find sponsors in the UK and go through the visa application process.

Jakub has been focusing on refugees from eastern parts of Ukraine where much of the worst of the violence has occurred.

Chloe Grutchfield

Chloe Grutchfield is a tech business leader and entrepreneur with a passion for technology and privacy.

In 2018, Chloe co-founded a privacy tech company called RedBud and outsourced all development to a partner company in Dnipro (Ukraine) called Go Wombat. Chloe sold her company to Sourcepoint and now heads up their product team. Since the sale of her company, the number of Ukraine developers grew to 11. The war impacted all of her colleagues in Ukraine: some moved to Spain, others to West Ukraine whilst a number of them decided to stay in Dnipro. Chloe's been taken aback by the level of dedication of her team in spite of the horrifying events. She has been involved in a number of initiatives to support Ukraine.

Chloe is hosting a family of Ukrainians and has gone through numerous sponsorship visa applications to help others seeking sponsors or sponsees. She hopes to share her experience with others to accelerate the matching, the application and the settlement.

Chloe is half English, half French and lived in Moscow with her family when she was a child. She grew up in a family in love with Russian and Ukrainian culture. She lives with her husband and 2 kids in London.

Mike McGuigan

Mike McGuigan is a seasoned businessman with a particular focus on strategy, operations and profitability.

Mike ran a variety of businesses in BP, including in its Chemicals and Retail areas.

He subsequently became CEO of Elemica, a supply chain network, taking this company from failure on to growth and profitability. Elemica was subsequently successfully sold for a 9 figure sale price.

Mike now manages his investment portfolio hands on. He is currently managing a growing Cotswolds based café chain in which he and his wife have invested.

Mike is one of five volunteers who set up https://www.oursupport4ukraine.com - a humanitarian initiative that to date has delivered 240 tonnes of aid directly into Ukraine. This aid (food, hygiene, bedding, medical and other) has been raised in London, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire and transported in 24 tonne lorries into Lviv, Ukraine for distribution across the country.

Gosia Golata

Gosia Golata is a serving officer with Lincolnshire Police but more recently a humanitarian.

She was in Poland on sabbatical caring for her mother when the invasion began. Her husband travelled over to be with her and help in the humanitarian effort soon after.

Gosia has been instrumental in the initiative spear headed by her husband Jakub. They started by driving refugees in a minibus to and from the Ukrainian border. They then took over the 180-bed hotel near Bydgoszcz, in northern Poland, for those waiting to be re-homed. The purpose of the converted hotel is to act as a "refugee hub" to provide support for those fleeing invasion, supporting them to settle in Poland or elsewhere in Europe. More recently, she's been helping Ukrainian families to find sponsors in the UK and go through the visa application process.

Gosia and Jakub have been focusing on refugees from eastern parts of Ukraine where much of the worst of the violence has occurred.

Alina Zalevska

Alina Zalevska is an Ukrainian fashion designer, entrepreneur and property developer. She was born in one of the most beautiful cities of Ukraine - Kamianets Podilskyi and raised in Italy.

Alina is the founder of Italian fashion brands Rosa Lou Firenze and Alinari Firenze.

She became an activist since the first Russian invasion started in 2014, participating in many protests and demonstrations against the war and being an spokesman of the Ukrainian community in Italy. https://youtu.be/kfdZQOU9y1E.

In 2019 Alina first came to the UK and in the same year she started her new construction business in small beautiful towns near Kyiv - Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel, which are now completely destroyed. Currently she is undertaking property development in London and helping Ukrainian refugees to come to UK.

Astrid Patil

Astrid is a lawyer and entrepreneur who passionately believes in advocating on behalf of those fleeing war and persecution.

In 1998 Astrid qualified as a lawyer and, whilst travelling worked as a playworker on a refugee camp in Holland. She found her vocation assisting (amongst others) Zimbabwean, Afghani and Iranian refugees with their UK asylum applications and appeals.

Married to Anil whose family are from India, she is half German and has two boys who celebrate their multi-cultural upbringing. Anil and Astrid ran their Domino’s Pizza franchise business together for ten years, Astrid recently returning to work as a lawyer in local government.

Sasha Molodstov

Sasha is Financial Services’ Director at BDO LLP, the fifth largest professional services firm globally.

Sasha is responsible for leading BDO’s Financial Services’ business development programme which includes retention and acquisition of global clients and client relationship management.

Along side her technical role, Sasha is an Inclusion leader (BAME, BLM and LGBT+ Ally), a mentor with The 30% Club, The Prince’s Trust and the co-founder of a successful women’s London network (over 600 members) for seven years, sponsored by Westpac Bank. Prior to joining BDO 10 years ago, Sasha worked for KPMG, Adecco Group and a local Australian not-for-profit.

Sasha’s mother, father and sister come from Odessa Ukraine. She is a mother of two children and two dogs, living with her husband in London.