“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.
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/
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.
Friday started with a two hour walk around Lublin’s fabulous outdoor museum. Absolutely beautifully done, this museum chronicles the history of architecture and life in this part of Poland. For the Ukrainian children a lot seemed very familiar. It’s so important that we all look for things that are similar than always look for differences. Just a few pics. It was also wonderful to get these kids out walking freely.
The tiniest village style Catholic church. Very simple on the outside, highly ornate and filled with icons on the inside. such a beautiful nativity scene too.
Then onto an amazing centre, part eco part activity, community centre. They run activities for Ukrainian refugees. The kids were given a pizza making work shop. Then there were fabulous crafts, games, chess, challenges, music. All the kids were so busy and engaged. Marvellous
Then back to the kids hotel for some very complex Angel making! It was a kind of foldy paper thing. Should have been east but OH MY!!
Wearing your Woolly Hug to do some Christmas craft. Priceless.
The kids were exhausted and bed time was calling. Then we were back in our van to our hotel.
It had been a wonderfully busy and productive day.
Minibus back to our hotel. This is a familiar view now!
Our wonderfully busy day continued with the most exciting trip to see the Christmas lights at Lumina Park. Absolutely magical. Absolutely magical for us, but imagine coming from a place with limited and only functional electricity, so much so that there are no street lights?Just sayin….The children took photos of every single piece to share the joy with their families. Such a lot of love flying around.Then back to the children’s hotel for dinner and the first round of BLANKET GIVING!Dinner time! Pierogi, one of the most popular Polish foods. Thinly rolled dough filled with a savoury mix of sauerkraut. Hearty and warming.So time for the first group of children to receive their blankets!As said in the video, I think sometimes we get bogged down in thinking squares, squares, squares, photos, photos, photos, construction, construction, you get the idea. But then here are the children. This is the heart and soul of it all. And here they are.In their current reality these children don’t get choices They don’t get to choose food, activities etc. And here we were with blankets spread out asking them to choose one to take home! Absolutely joyful. Thank you so much for making this happen. We were struggling to contain our emotions. But we did with a smile on our faces and in our hearts.Some children spotted ‘their blanket’ straight away and rushed over, falling on their blanket with joyful whoops. Others walked round and round taking in the whole sight before making very careful selections. They were utterly delighted. Lots of thanks and love.We asked if they’d like a photo and some were too shy. So this is just some of the children with their blankets. Isn’t this wonderful? ❤️And the rest of the blankets are going to children on Saturday. We have more Ukrainian children coming for a Christmas party. We can’t wait to meet them!And this morning their teachers were saying that as they said goodnight to the children, they were all tucked in with their blankets. It doesn’t get much better, does it?Nadia “IloveitIloveitIloveitTHANKYOOOOO’ ❤️
It’s a super busy day today so this day is brought to you in two halves!
All the kids had been booked into a soft play session in Lublin which they adored.
It was absolutely wonderful to stand and watch they have such fun. Kids being kids with absolute freedom.
Lots of shrieking, chasing, laughing, shouting. Absolutely joyful.
And then…
Bringing it right back to their reality. On our way back to the coach, suddenly an alert sounded. Every child and teacher reached for their mobile. Their emergency air raid app had triggered. The app tracks bomber jets taking off. And warns them to take cover. Depending on routes and types of bombs, they have a certain number of minutes. Inconceivable isn’t it? This is their reality. On this occasion everyone at home was safe and unaffected. On this occasion.
Sobering.
But off we go and very kindly the charity Caritas had invited all the kids to lunch look at the beautiful church behind. Stunning.
The kitchen is run by Ukrainians and the lunch they made was very familiar Ukrainian fare. The kids were starving and tucked straight in. The majority of the kids are terribly anaemic because it’s impossible at the moment to get access to a range of food and heat sources are not reliable. So it was such a joy to see them eating such hearty healthy hot food.
After lunch we met Cezary, a local businessman dedicated to helping Ukrainian refugees. He won’t call them refugees or displaced, rather ‘our Ukrainian friends’ Cezary was inspirational. He runs a home for 130 families. He has a real understanding of the impact of war on the current and future generations, with a passion for working on mental health and well being. This is a theme we are hearing more and more about. We have taken Cezary’s card. We wonder if we can help him.
And now we are enjoying a Christmas party entertainer. We’ve been joined by 50+ Ukrainian families who have fled their homes and a currently living in Lublin. It’s a tough life, full of uncertainty. In many cases they have no homes to go to. Awful. But this afternoon, they can be children at Christmas time.Honestly. It’s such a tonic to hear these children LAUGH AND LAUGH. Best thing!
And now Saint Nicholas is here!! For real. Kids are all getting big bags of swag. How fantastic to be able to treat them like this.
Having dropped our things at our hotel in Lublin we headed over to the hotel where the children coming directly from Ukraine will be staying, it’s an absolutely beautiful sight. Used for weddings in the summer, this gorgeous traditional family run hotel looks so warm and inviting in the snow. A perfect setting for their respite break, yet only 25 miles from the Ukrainian border. Such a contrast within a small geographic area. A true safe haven.
The children arrived into Poland with no significant delay at the border. The hotel is on the main road joining Kyiv and Warsaw. But the children couldn’t use the nearest border crossing, as due to the war, that crossing is purely for fuel tankers. The Ukrainians can’t import fuel on trains anymore as they are such a target for opposing military forces. So this created over a 350 mile trip for them
But they are safely here and we’ve briefly seen them, and met their teachers. Truly astonishing women. They are also travelling with a child psychologist.
And we were reunited with all our blankets! Absolutely wonderful to see all our hard work and woolly love in this setting so far from home. Was like meeting old friends!
And all the torches and power banks. Tortie for scale
Absolutely bloomin wonderful. we can’t thank you all enough.
We all had dinner. Delicious. We were so thankful. It had been a long full on day for us and for them. In fact the children went to bed early. They’d had some craft activities planned but they can wait for another day. We heard how last year some children had slept with their curtains open to enjoy the street lighting. In Ukraine there are very often black out periods or power cuts. So lighting is a novelty. We heard reports of 45 minutes of power during 36 hours as not uncommon. In addition to light, imagine how cold that is.
After the children had eaten we spent time with the others from the CCLL (we adore them) creating Christmas party bags. We were on chocolate duty. And NOT ONE PASSED OUR LIPS! Tortie was in charge. We thought, what could go wrong?!
And we made a new friend in the hotel cat. Very chatty and chirpy. Like us.
So a lot done on Day one. We’ve retired to our room with a cheeky traditional Polish nightcap Say no more.
Some more pics from today.
See you tomorrow. X
Hotel corridors of doom. Lublin edition. In the children’s hotel which is often used as a wedding hotel. Chocolate sorting. Our forte. Beautifully warm and welcoming for the children. Respite. It’s such a comforting place.
