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Category: Blogs

  • Christmas in Poland 2024. Day One.

    Christmas in Poland 2024. Day One.

    Our journey here was very easy and quick by comparison to the Ukrainian children and their teachers’ experience. Curfews affect travel in Ukraine, the group left at 4.30am, had to go through security checks and immigration leaving Ukraine AND the same again entering Poland. But finally they are here and so are we.

    The children are staying again at the family run Hotel Regionalny. It’s fabulous here and they are so kind. The hotel is located in the town Pełczyn just off the route Lublin – Chelm. It’s about 50 miles from the Ukrainian border. No snow on the ground this year, but it’s bitterly cold with snow flurries.

    And it was wonderful to be reunited with our blanket collection. All here. All accounted for! You are all with us. We can’t wait to give them out now.

    And the cat is still here!! You remember it photo bombing one of our films last year.

    We have all just had dinner and now it’s time for games and craft. It’s fantastic seeing these children safe and warm and enjoying activities. Lots of chatting and laughing. Can’t get much better.

    See you in the morning! Busy day tomorrow. And part of it involves our blankets!

  • Christmas in Poland 2024.

    Christmas in Poland 2024.

    Bloomin early start! At Heathrow already, flight to Warsaw at 8.20am. All the coffee please!

  • Christmas in Poland 2024. Pack the van!

    Christmas in Poland 2024. Pack the van!

    In terms of getting our blankets to the wonderful Ukrainian children, their journey has begun.

    If anyone can pack better than Dennis at the CCLL we’d love to know. Honestly it’s astonishing!

    Our blankets are vac packed in those banker type boxes, ten in each. Plus a few extra IKEA bags. 250 blankets are travelling. Incredible.

    It’s over 1000 miles to Lublin. Hours of driving. Safe travels Dennis!

  • Woolly Hugs goes to Poland, Christmas 2024

    Woolly Hugs goes to Poland, Christmas 2024

    Absolutely delighted to now be able to confirm this with you. We are joining Dennis, Andy, Joan and others from the CCLL on their trip to Lublin, Poland just before Christmas.  (Dec 9 – 13th))

    A large group of 10-14 year old Ukrainian children from Korosten district will be arriving into Poland for a respite break and will be accompanied by 5 leaders – 4 of whom are English teachers.  There are two days of activities planned, including something with some Ukrainian children and their families already refugeed in Lublin. Lublin is about 50 miles from the Ukrainian border.

    And then on the Saturday we get to be there to be with the Ukrainian children and help give our blankets out. OUR CHERNOBS! Our beautiful blankets to these beautiful children!  Can you image how precious a time this will be? We are beyond thankful that this is actually a possibility! Just wow.

    Each and every one of you will be with us in spirit. We take you all in our hearts.

    As with our trip last year and also Belarus we intend to blog and even Vlog where possible.

    We are flying with Andy March to Warsaw, and then driving to Lublin. Dennis is driving all our blankets plus a lot more from Alton. That’s over 1000 miles in a van!

    So so happy we can do this, we will take as many photos as we can! As Dennis says our blankets are so much more than just a blanket. They give love, support, warmth and comfort.

    We have one more ask. In the past we have made stockings for children just like these. We are asking again for something fundamental this time. If you would like to send along an additional gift for one of the children living in Ukraine, please read on. The charity are developing the idea of a grab bag for these kids. So if they have to go suddenly into a shelter they have a bag with a full water bottle, something to read, school work, something to keep warm, which could be our blankets and a torch. It’s the torch and power bank we are asking for. It is a specific type, a rechargeable torch so no need for replacement batteries. It is awful that this is their life experience, they had so little to start with, now coping with ongoing war. Power plants have been targeted more than ever and the country is running on absolute minimal basic power. It is very cold and very dark.

    If you are able to do this one more thing for these children and families please check out below. Easy to purchase and get sent directly to Dennis below..

    Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline, 6 Hartley Business Park, Selborne Road, Alton, GU34 3HD.

    Any to go in the van on THIS trip, need to have arrived by Dec 5th. Anything that arrives after will go over at some point in 2025..

    Power bank 

    Power bank

    Rechargable torch 

    Rechargable torch

    Thank you so much wonderful people, these precious items will make such a difference .

    Some wonderful pics from last Christmas. Thank you all again for making this happen.

     

     

    Copyright © 2024 Woolly Hugs. Charity registration number: 1167411. All rights reserved.

  • A Wonderful Postscript

    A Wonderful Postscript

    “This trip feels like a Christmas miracle.” From Masha, one of the wonderful Ukrainian children who’d come to Lublin, Poland for a respite holiday. One day we’ll meet in Ukraine. Next year? Wouldn’t THAT be a Christmas miracle?
    Not all children could come to Poland, and we wanted to make sure we could send blankets back with the children and teachers, to reach as many from Korosten (home town) as possible. So these lovely children are in their school in Korosten. This is approximately 100 miles NW of Kyiv., 70 ish from Chernobyl
    Irina and the other teachers have been absolutely wonderful and the blankets already going out! You may even see a Bestie as we found a few left from Camp Bestival and took those with us. They loved them! Enjoy these photos. Thank you so much everyone again for making this happen. Much love this Christmas time.
  • Home

    Home

    We are home. And the children are safely back home with their families in Ukraine. They live at Korosten, near Kyiv. After last night’s excitement and emotions, there was only one thing to do. Set up a VPN and watch the Strictly final on iPlayer! Excellent show. Worthy winners.
    Sunday morning. Homeward bound.
    Tortie is also home. He didn’t accidentally get on the Ukraine bound bus!
    We have in our possession a powerful precious piece made by the children. They were given a Ukrainian flag and on this they wrote messages of peace, hope, love and anti war. It’s so incredibly moving. We were so deeply touched to have been given this and will bring it to Hugathons to share with you.
    And we love our special pin badges as in the featured image. We are better together. Our first thanks go to YOU. You the woolly hugs crafting community. 150 blankets were delivered. And we took a load of heart hearts which we gave to the mums, who were so touched and delighted. This is a huge amount of crafting hours and we are so grateful. It truly makes a difference in the lives of others. It’s a wonderful thing. So THANK YOU!
    Huge thanks to the amazing CCLL’s CEO Dennis Vystavkin who was so well supported by lovely Galina, his wonderful mum. These two are driving the van home, and are the only ones not home yet. News soon we hope. Thanks too to Big Mike Lafferty from Ayrshire, Andy March of Bristol, all the wonderful, inspirational teachers from Korosten, the children who are a delight and an utter joy, and the staff at Hotel Regionalny for being so warm and welcoming. Also the teams at Eleon and Caritas, both doing wonderful work. As we parted from our new friends last night we said ‘Next year in Ukraine.’Let us hope the war ends and this can become a reality. G&G Sunday 17th December 2023 If you are interested, this project is already underway for next year. All help gratefully received. Please read carefully for crafting info and time schedules. THANK YOU! https://www.woollyhugs.org/2023/07/12/chernobyl-2024-reach-for-the-stars/
  • Saturday’s Christmas Party and more blanket giving!

    Saturday’s Christmas Party and more blanket giving!

    On our way over to the children’s hotel. First time we’ll see it in the daylight!
    The queue for the border is still 30 miles long. More fuel tankers today. At the moment Ukraine is importing all its fuel. So this really isn’t good.
    It was such a joy to prepare party tables for all the children coming. These children and mums have left Ukraine and are living in Lublin as refugees. This is a tough experience. And their worries will be for their menfolk who have been called up. It was such a privilege to be able to do something lovely for them.

    Blanket giving was such a wonderful thing. Honestly your love shone from the blankets.

    These children today were younger than the ones we have been with on their respite break. And they loved choosing. Again some had an immediate connection with a blanket, others took an age. And each were lovely to see!

    Again, not every blanket and child are shown, because in some cases it wasn’t right to push for a photo. So please celebrate each one. These children have very little. They are just like our own childrenLeaving the country would have been a very immediate process, with limited options to take stuff.

    Love in every stitch we say. Always true.

    And once the children had their blanket it was party lunch time. This was joyfully riotous! And something rather special happened. Lots of the kids gave their blankets to their mums to look after. And those mums all wrapped themselves up. These mums are young, isolated, away from home and worried for the men in their lives.

    Have a look.

    Wonderful pics aren’t they? These people have nothing. Our blankets gave love and joy at every turn. Thank you all so much for making this happen. It’s a truly astonishing thing.

    Then it was time to party! games, dancing, confetti. Even a 6ft 4 Glaswegian elf arrived!

    We were treated to a farewell concert on our last night. With songs and dances, this was truly beautiful. The children beautifully sang their hearts out on a Ukrainian folk song called Marigolds. Marigolds are resilient and grow even when you think they’ve gone, they grow back. Beautiful, haunting, poignant.

    Saying goodbye ‘for now’ was incredibly tough. They ask that when they win the war that we visit them in Ukraine. Of course we will. Let’s all pray that this is sooner rather than later.

    Beautiful traditional dress.