Return from a really good aid run...

We crammed a lot into a few days, visited a number of places, took a lot of aid and did some different things this time. Now we're back in Lviv, we're just trying to remember and process it all.

First of all, we left pillows, baby milk and nappies with our host in Kyiv. Yana and her husband, using their own money, buy and donate items to previously occupied villages in the Chernihiv region. We met her when we first visited this area in October last year.

In Kharkiv we delivered aid to two warehouses, including plastic sheeting to replace windows blown out by bombs in Izium. We also left cakes for soldiers, which have been duly delivered.

Bob wrote about our experience at the school in Ivanivka, near Chernihiv, yesterday, and we have been sent lots more photos. The younger children were wonderfully engaging in very little time.

Observant readers may recognise the children's song, written by the teacher's assistant. I never thought that I would find myself writing on a blackboard again!

Bob also managed to engage with the small class of 16-year-olds, who were actually described as 'lazy' by their teacher. Well, they're teenagers!! In fact, we think it's more about their difficulty in staying motivated; as their teacher said, they know full well what happened during the brutal month-long occupation of their village at the beginning of the war. And now, although they have some kind of freedom, what must they be thinking about their futures?

And these kids were also really likeable, as their teacher acknowledged. We got to know them a little better during the air raid alert, when the whole school descended into 3 rooms (divided by age) in the basement.

Bob talked about sports with the boys and I found myself discussing Ukrainian literature with a 14/15-year-old girl. Fortunately, her favourite writer is the poet, Shevchenko, who is the only Ukrainian author I know, I'm ashamed to say!

We're looking forward to visiting Ivanivka school again and, hopefully, making a link with the school in our village of Trawden.

We're doing some thinking about how and where we deliver aid in the future. These are the questions we've been considering...Is it better to deliver aid to a number of places or to concentrate on one area? Should we be taking aid to places that may have a high level of need, but where there is a greater risk to life from constant shelling? Would it be better to try to persuade, and help, the people in areas that have been completely destroyed to evacuate, rather than continue to put themselves, soldiers and volunteers at risk?

There are no easy answers, although we're coming to the conclusion that, for us, we would like to focus on one area. But we work with other organisations and will need to discuss this with them, and find a way forward that best meets the diverse needs of people here - not just their physical needs, but psychological and emotional, now and in the longer term.