UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is currently repairing the entire fourth floor in addition to providing mattresses, blankets and kitchen sets to meet the centres’ growing needs, while the municipality is assisting with electricity, heating and food. Under the auspices of her charity, the Ukraine Support and Renovation Foundation, the refurbished hospital finally opened its doors in June and is currently home to 130 refugees, including 51 children. Together with help from refugee volunteers and donations from businesses, local authorities, NGOs and the Bulgarian public, Ellis has managed to renovate the first three floors of the four-storey building since taking on the project in March. “Within the first few days of the war we started a donation collection centre and with the help of family, friends and associates we quickly gathered food, medicine, blankets and bandages, but as things quickly escalated, we realized that more needed to be done,” said Ellis as she walked through the first few floors of the now refurbished hospital. But it was free, donated by the municipality, and Ellis – who has called Plovdiv home since leaving Ukraine in 2016 – was determined to bring it back to life for the sake of the numerous women, children and older people in dire need of a place to stay. There was no water or electricity, and the interior was in complete disarray, with paint peeling off the buildings’ crumbling concrete walls. When Nata Ellis, a tech entrepreneur originally from Odesa, first heard about the deserted hospital in her adopted city of Plovdiv in Bulgaria, she could already see its potential as a shelter for refugees forced to flee the war in Ukraine.
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