Would it be possible for WMUK to join the government's sponsorship
scheme as a registered UK charity and provide organizational and
practical help and probably a very modest amount of funding for
someone fleeing the war in the Ukraine to stay in London? It's likely
that funding will be available from several sources if requested, so
WMUK may not need to directly fund anything apart from some
coordination time from an employee and of course interested
volunteers.
Talking to others that have sponsored political refugees in the past,
such as religious groups, there is an expectation that you have a
connection to the sponsored refugee, and it would seem appropriate to
seek to sponsor an academic or librarian, or even a past Wikipedia
volunteer who is unable to use the other routes as they don't have
existing close family living in the UK.
Could the trustees have a discussion about whether this is reasonable
and allowable under the "libraries" and open knowledge scope of the
charity and the agreement with the Wikimedia Foundation? If it's not
reasonable to take direct action, the trustees may have other ideas of
how WMUK can be seen to help.
Reference:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-sponsorship-scheme-for-ukraine
Thanks,
Lane