3 minute read
CCLL – The Helping Hand for Ukraine & Online Charity Shop
On Thursday 6th July the 6 children from Ukraine arrived after a very last minute panic with Visas being received only the afternoon before travel was due. The children had to cross into Poland and it took 13 hours to get through the border arriving at their accommodation in Lublin at 3:00 am. After only 3 hours sleep they had to set off for Warsaw to go to the Visa Application Centre. I am sure you can imagine how very tired they were on arrival in Mid Suffolk.
The children come from the area of Borodyanka and you only have to google this to see it is one of the worst hit areas of Ukraine with much of the town being completely razed to the ground by the Russian invasion. The children come from families who have lost their homes due to being bombed and are having to live with relatives in very cramped conditions. Two of the fathers are soldiers on the front line, another a fireman and another now an invalid having been injured as a soldier.
We have a program of activities arranged for them but most important is for this time away from the war to help with their recovery from the stress of living with constant air raids and not being able to live anything resembling a normal life. Even most of education is now carried out remotely due to the lack of school buildings that remain in a safe enough condition for the children to attend.
A big thank you must go out to those people who have donated clothing & shoes, sponsored activities and generally done what they can to help support the children during this visit. Arriving with nothing we are supplying everything they need now and also to hopefully take home some clothing for the winter to come and larger items to grow into.
I am sure everyone is aware how much everything has gone up in price and without this support we would have really struggled to finance this visit.
To finish on a more positive not, at the time of writing they have only been here three days but already the quiet, pale and timid children are starting to relax, are smiling and playing – eating everything in sight and improving day by day.
Thank you is not enough, there are not words to describe our gratitude.
