Preparing for the next aid run

We set off again on Wednesday with 1000 kg of aid, mostly consisting of boxes of family hygiene kits. We plan to stay in a village where we previously delivered aid, in the Chernihiv region. On Thursday we want to take the aid to nearby villages that we understand have not received any help yet.

We're trying to help the state school that we visited in this village. Many schools have been destroyed in the area, and children from 6 other villages attend this school. It has very few resources and the teachers seemed exhausted. One teacher told us that she gets paid the equivalent of US $200 a month. They need so much but we will start with books. During the time the village was occupied, Russian soldiers stole the Russian books and used the Ukrainian books for toilet paper.

We're aiming to raise funds to buy books for the school: English language, Ukrainian literature, geography, maths, biology and other science text books, for younger and older age groups. We have £300 and would like to raise £1000. We'll buy the books in Chernihiv if we can, with the help of the school's English teacher.

On Friday Bob hopes to do some English teaching in the school, with one of the younger classes and the older class.

I read a statistic in the Guardian: over 50% of Ukrainian children have been forced to leave their homes. This makes it even more important that we try to help those who have managed to stay. Their generation will be the one that has to try to rebuild Ukraine.

As we have been talking about children, this photo from my "Blue and yellow" folder seems appropriate. This was once a swing in Mykolaiv...

If you can help, please donate in the usual way:

1. Open PayPal and, when asked for name of payee or email, enter trawden4ukraine@hotmail.com. 

2. Use the collection box in Trawden community shop

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