"The Frying Dutchmen" and "The Holland House".
"The holland house" is our shelter for refugees in Dnipro
The Holland House: A Safe Haven Away from the Front Lines
As the war continued to escalate, we noticed that one problem kept recurring. People could often be evacuated from the front lines, but after that, they didn’t know where to go. That’s why we opened our own shelter: The Holland House.
Our first Holland House is located in Dnipro, about 80 kilometers from the front lines. Here, we take in war victims who have often lost everything.
Our guests aren’t people who come knocking on our door themselves. They are people who missed their flights and could no longer leave the frontline area without help. They were evacuated by us, by the Ukrainian military, or by our good friend Denys Khrystov. This often involved armored vehicles, because the journey had become too dangerous.
Many guests have lived for months without running water, heat, or electricity. Some spent weeks or even months in basements, while bombs and shells struck daily above them.
At The Holland House, they find the peace they need to catch their breath. Among other things, we provide a safe place to sleep, good meals, medical care, mental health support, clothing, hygiene products, and assistance in building a new life. Together, we look for a permanent place to live elsewhere in Ukraine.
To date, we have already taken in several hundred war victims in Dnipro.
A Second Holland House
Because the need for shelter remains high, we have now begun renovating a second Holland House, located between Ternopil and Khmelnytskyi.
This new location offers even more opportunities to temporarily shelter war victims and represents a significant expansion of our relief efforts in Ukraine.
As long as the war continues, we will remain committed not only to evacuating people from the frontline area but also to providing them with a safe place where they can gradually rebuild their lives.
The First Resident of The Holland House
The story of The Holland House began with Svetlana.
Together with the well-known Ukrainian aid worker Denys Khrystov, we joined an evacuation in Netailove, a village near Avdiivka. As artillery shells struck and Russian troops closed in, we tried to convince residents to leave.
Svetlana was also hesitant. She didn’t want to leave her home behind.
A few days later, everything changed. Her own home was hit by mortar shells, and her neighbors’ house was completely wiped out by a Russian aerial bomb. Only then did she finally decide to leave. She was evacuated along with her husband. Not long after, she became the very first resident of The Holland House.
For us, that was the moment it became clear just how important a shelter is. People not only need a safe way to get out of the frontline area, but also a place where they can recover, heal, and start over afterward.