A travel agent who fled the war in Ukraine before joining Miles Morgan Travel is “improving in confidence all the time” despite the ongoing conflict in her native country.
Olga Matveiuk joined the agency group in September last year following a chance meeting with owner Miles Morgan at an agricultural show.
She works at the Monmouth branch’s foreign exchange counter and Morgan said he sees no reason why she couldn’t sell holidays in future once her spoken English has improved further.
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Morgan said: “She’s done brilliantly. What’s obvious is her confidence is improving all the time, driven by the improvement in her language skills, and she’s enjoying the job.
“She’s come to me with ideas on things we could be doing as a business and she’s got lots of energy.”
Morgan said the improvement was all the more impressive given Olga was living apart from her partner, who remains in Ukraine, and the continuing conflict.
“For someone who in the back of her mind has all these things going on in her homeland, she is incredible,” said Morgan, adding: “I would hope she could go on to sell travel. In terms of her destination knowledge, she has lots.”
Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Matveiuk worked for one of the country’s well-established travel agency and tour operator groups, Artex94, as marketing director.
Recalling the day she realised she and her daughter Maria would have to leave their home in Kyiv, she said: “When part of a downed rocket fell from the sky 30 metres away from us, the decision became final.”
Matveiuk, who is also an artist, came to the UK with the help of Artists in Exile, an organisation which supports artists coming to the UK through the government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme.
While the move to the UK in July 2022 proved challenging, landing a job in the travel industry has helped her to settle into life in the UK.
“Sometimes I forget I’m in Britain and feel like I’m back in Kyiv,” she said.
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