Irina arrived in Cēsis less than a month ago. She had managed to escape constant bombing in the shattered Mariupol. The husband – Latvian – waited for Irina.
“I don't have much choice right now, I'm going to work in a hotel where I was already offered a job. I'm not afraid of work, I want to start life again. You see, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, nothing hurts your soul anymore,” Irina said.
Also, the teacher Ira and her daughter Nastya, who arrived from Kyiv a month ago, stressed that Ukrainians are not afraid of work. It is important for both to earn so that they can get by until they can safely return home.
“We were looking at a greenhouse, at a furniture factory, to work with wood. We looked at the hospital. The hospital also needs employees. Yes, they even take people without medical education and without knowledge of the language. We've been learning it a little. It's a shame we don't know the Latvian language, but we're already learning it,” Ira and Nastya said.
Meanwhile, Jana arrived in Latvia in early April from Kharkiv.
“I'm an accountant, a finance expert. But since I don't know the language, it's hard for me to find a job here, so I'll look for something that doesn't need language. Maybe in a store for a warehouse, something that doesn't need to know the language,” she said.
Entrepreneurs look for kitchen workers and chefs, factory workers, as well as care workers in medical and social care facilities. For example, two medical staff from Ukraine already work in the Cēsis Clinic.
“In the Cēsis Clinic, there's a nursing assistant who's been working for two weeks now, while the documents are aligned with the profession of the radiologist. Another colleague's medical nurse's documents have also been sent for review by the Health Inspectorate,“ said the head nurse Taiga Taleja-Gruntmane.
Several potential employees were identified by the beer producer “Cēsu alus”. “We already have 6 Ukrainian ladies, we are very pleased with their work. We are also trying to sort out the shifts so that they can work together, so that it is possible to talk during the break,” said Agnese Strazdiņa-Jaunzema, specialist for recruitment and development of staff at Cēsu alus.
