Somedays are sometimes extraordinary.....

I have to start today with our arrival at a school in a village called Ivanivka at about 10:45. We promised the English teacher, Ala, the last time we were in Ivanivka, that we would visit her school on our next visit, after she had invited us to meet the children in the school.

The school has children, aged 5 to 16, divided into primary, middle and secondary, with 177 pupils. The number has grown because children attend from neighboring villages where schools have been destroyed. The school is from the Soviet era with, unfortunately, few facilities. Many of the facilities it did have were damaged or destroyed by the Russian invaders, even using Ukrainian language textbooks as toilet paper. Unfortunately, there is not enough money to replace these books. All the classrooms, except one, had basic blackboards. There was one interactive classroom.

This doesn't begin to tell the story, though. We visited most of the classrooms and were met, initially, with shyness, then curiosity, and then engagement. The teachers explained that it is hard for the pupils to engage with the education process, first due to COVID and now the war. The village was occupied for 1 month and we think this has definitely impacted on the children.

We had first hand experience of this disruption. I was half way through an English lesson, when the air raid alert siren went off. All children had to make their way to the cellar below the school which, although equipped with desks, would have been impossible to have lessons in due to limited space and the number of children. (This was where 300 people lived during the Russian occupation.) The first picture is of the cellar... looks better than it is

It was in the cellar when some of the children started approaching both Fiona and me, wanting to try out their English. I can't begin to describe how honoured we felt being amongst these children. And how emotional it was.

And more was to come. We were able to give out a limited number of "Trauma Teddies" from Penparcau, Aberystwyth, Wales, donated and made by two kind and talented ladies, Carol and Tracey. People are asked to sponsor the Teddy, give them a name and send them on their journey to children in Ukraine, who may need some comfort at this very traumatic time. I wasn't sure how the teddies would go down..... I will let the pictures tell the story.

Other good things happened this day, but I want the focus to be on these wonderful, resilient children and their teachers, notwithstanding an understanding that many may still be suffering from what happened. It's reassuring to know that the school has a psychologist on the staff group.

We will visit this school again and support as we can. In the first instance, we have asked them to make a video of themselves and their school. We will try to make contact with the school in Trawden and see if they would do likewise, and then these videos could be shared, if allowed, between the schools...maybe even a video call between the two schools. If anyone has a contact at the school, whom we could approach, please let us know.

The second part of what we will try to do is buy them some new textbooks. If you are able to give anything, we will spend all monies raised in the next week on buying these books. If you are able to help in any way, the children will be grateful. Their's is the future for Ukraine.

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.