Ukraine– Easter 2023

Sunday 12th March 2023

Visitors to the Refresh Café earnt their tea and cake today! Wonderful help from them to load the van up with our collection to go to the Ukraine, the van was full to bursting. Richard, who was collecting it will be driving over there next week with the deliveries – 4 vans are going this time. Our thoughts and prayers go with all who are making the trip for a safe journey out and safe return home. Thank you again to all who contributed to the collection.

Many thanks to all you generous people who knitted and donated hats and scarves to the Ukraine Appeal and food and clothes etc. Everything is now boxed up ready to go. There is a bumper collection of beautifully made hats and scarves, these wont just keep people warm but will raise the spirits of the wearers knowing how much love has gone into their making.

The donations will be collected from St Firmin’s Church tomorrow , Richard is coming along to our Refresh Cafe tomorrow afternoon to collect it all (Sunday 12th 2pm-4pm) Why not come along and find out first hand about who will benefit from the donations.

Ukraine Christmas Appeal

Dear all!

We thought you might like a quick update on the Christmas Campaign to Help Our Ukrainian Friends.  We are so grateful for all the support we have had from so many people and wanted to let you know how much this continued and ongoing support is appreciated by the Ukrainian community. 

You can watch videos of the Campaign and the trip to Poland and Ukraine on our You Tube channel – https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy0QCmIALTCVSGeIUFGmtNimtouWhnjx-  and there are lots more photos on the Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/HelpingUkrainesSurgeons Please do share these with your congregations.

Three vans carrying around 5 tonnes of food, warm clothes and Christmas Boxes for Ukrainian children set off from Peterborough on 30 November, travelling through Germany and arriving in Poland on Friday 2 December.  The team of six drivers from Peterborough, Doncaster and Dronfield were joined in Gliwice by four other members of the team who helped to unload our vans and reload onto trucks bound for Ukraine.  In addition to the donations brought from Peterborough, the project had also funded the purchase of 20 generators in Poland, which (and they were very heavy!) were also loaded onto the lorries.

As part of the Christmas Campaign we had arranged with our Ukrainian friends in Poland for a Christmas party for Ukrainian refugee children.  120 children joined us in a church in Gliwice for an evening of music and singing, including a very average rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas by the UK team!  We had also brought with us small gifts for each of the children.  Many Ukrainian ladies who joined us for the evening came up to us to say how important such support and messages of hope are to them and their children.

On the Sunday 3 December, the empty vans started on the long road back to England through a cold and snowy Germany, while Richard joined the trucks travelling across Poland, and over the border into Ukraine, stopping near Rivne, where our long-term partner in these projects, Pastor Aleksander, has his church. The next day we unloaded all the donations and were able to visit the church where the local school is currently based in the basement.  Their normal building is unsafe as it has only a covered trench, rather than a concrete basement, for use in air raids.  One of the generators will ensure that they don’t have to sit in the basement in the dark, when the electricity is off (it is currently only on 4 hours a day).  We gave out 120 of the Christmas Boxes, each one of which had been created by children at schools in Helpston, Oundle, Peterborough, Dronfield and Doncaster.  The video on our You Tube channel shows the children saying thank you!  The other boxes will shortly be delivered to communities in eastern Ukraine.

The generators have already been distributed to community venues across Ukraine – to a community café in Kyiv, to a charity for the deaf in Odesa, to communities around Rivne and Sumy and to refugees from Kharkhiv now living in western Ukraine. The food and clothes will be delivered in the next week or so to communities in Sumy Oblast and villages around Kherson.

We are starting now to think about how we continue our support for Ukraine and the many communities and individuals we are now in touch with.  We are looking at further trips out with donated food and clothes and potentially a large Easter Campaign.  We hope to support another Summer Camp for Ukrainian refugee children in summer 2023 and to continue our support for the Kyiv Heart Institute through the purchase of heart valves.  We will need your continued support to make all this happen, but hope this brief summary of a busy and emotional trip for us all, shows just why that support is needed and how our efforts do make a difference.

Ukraine’s future matters to us all.  As a team we are committed to doing what we can to help the people we have met, the communities we have helped and the country we have become so proud to support.  We would like to thank everyone involved for their support – whether donating food and clothes, making financial donations to help us buy generators and heart valves, helping children to create Christmas Boxes or heaving heavy boxes into vans; it all matters and it all makes a difference.

Thank you for all your help and support!  It is much appreciated!

Richard Astle on behalf of the Helping Our Ukrainian Friends project team

07885 252571

Many thanks to everyone for the many donations that were collected for Ukraine. We had a really great response and Richard was very grateful of your support. The donations were collected last Sunday, the 27th November, and will soon be on the way to their

And here is a generator being delivered to the school.

These ladies are making vareniki in the school canteen for soldiers on the front line.

Many thanks to all for the generous donations for the Christmas Appeal. The donations have been collected by Richard and are now on there way.

The food will be delivered to Gliwice in early December, reaching the front line communities before Christmas. Please include the Richard, the volunteers and the people of Ukraine in your prayers.

You can find out more about the project on the Facebook Page and Just Giving site

www.facebook.com/HelpingUkrainesSurgeons

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/helpingukrainesurgeons

For further details contact Richard Astle on richard@athene-communications.co.uk

Group Harvest Festival on the 16th October

Many thanks to everyone for the many donations that were collected for Ukraine. We had a really great response and Richard was very grateful of your support. The donations were collected last Sunday, the 27th November, and will soon be on the way to their destination. The food will be delivered to Gliwice in early December, reaching the front line communities before Christmas. Please include the Richard, the volunteers and the people of Ukraine in your prayers.

Our collection of items will be for the people of Ukraine, we have a friend, Richard, who will be driving down to make a delivery before Christmas.

Let us help to make it a better Christmas for the people in Ukraine in need of our help

Ukraine Christmas Appeal

Since March a team of local people and organisations has been delivering food to Ukrainian communities in Sumy Oblast, eastern Ukraine.  So far they have made four deliveries, taking over 5 tonnes of food to a church in Gliwice, Poland, from where it is transported to another church in Rivne, western Ukraine, before being delivered to villages near Sumy.  Videos on the groups Facebook page show the food on the various stages of its journey, from collection points around Peterborough and the Deepings to Poland and on to Ukraine. 

The team are now hoping to make their largest delivery yet in time for Christmas or New Year.  They have set up more collection points than ever before and are asking people to make a small donation of the following items before Sunday 27 November

RICE—FLOUR  –  PASTA  –  NOODLES  –   ANY TINNED GOODS

PARACETAMOL  – SANITARY PRODUCTS

The food will then be delivered to Gliwice in early December, reaching the front line communities before Christmas.  You can find out more about the project on the Facebook Page and Just Giving site

www.facebook.com/HelpingUkrainesSurgeons

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/helpingukrainesurgeons

For further detailks contact Richard Astle on richard@athene-communications.co.uk

Latest update items needed – 11 April

The items below are desperately needed for Ukraine. We will continue to collect these items along with medication/ first aid items and hygiene products as listed below. Please do NOT send any other items, particularly any textiles (bedding, sleeping bags, towels , blankets and clothes) as St Olga’s cannot take them at this time. Items can be left in the church porch. Thank you.

The hospitals in Ukraine are in URGENT need of baby care items!

Premature Nappies

Newborn & Size 1 Nappies

Baby Wipes

Nappy Rash Cream

Nappy Sacks

Following our visit to St Olga’s Church in Peterborough to take the village contributions- this is the latest list of item they are asking for.

The items they are now needing urgently are listed below- sorry it is not easier to read, they are not now taking blankets, sleeping bags or any other textiles only the most urgent items as listed ( though not now taking shoes, boots either).

Their 13th HGV has just gone out with a delivery in the last few days.

St Olga’s Church now have a bank account to help pay for transport and buy items that are difficult to source.

Account name – Ukrainian Community Peterborough Sort Code 20-63-28 Account No:70291420

Alternatively if you donate on the Disasters Emergency Committee – Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal