“The kids were choosing their blankets and then having fun — throwing them around and wrapping themselves in them to keep warm. The joy they brought is incredible.
“One lady told me, ‘You’ve made these children smile and because the children are smiling, the parents are smiling too — for the first time in days’.
TERRIFIED and dazed after travelling for days to safety, traumatised Ukrainian children finally had a reason to smile — as they were handed blankets knitted by kind Sun on Sunday readers.
A total of 500 were donated after you responded to our Knit A Kid A Blanket campaign.
The blankets were then loaded into lorries at the headquarters of our charity partner Operation Orphan in Nottingham and driven 1,700 miles to be distributed in Moldova, which borders Ukraine.
Thousands of refugees are seeking sanctuary in the southern city of Cahul, and the blankets knitted by our kind-hearted readers are offering comfort to children who have witnessed so much suffering since the Russians invaded.
Brad Moore, Operation Orphan’s managing director, said: “We walked into the first refugee centre and the children had wide smiles. They were all asking, ‘Are these blankets made by machines or by hand?’.
“When we said, ‘by hand’, they were all like, ‘That is amazing’.
Read more on Ukraine
“The kids were choosing their blankets and then having fun — throwing them around and wrapping themselves in them to keep warm. The joy they brought is incredible.
“One lady told me, ‘You’ve made these children smile and because the children are smiling, the parents are smiling too — for the first time in days’.
“It’s so nice to see this injection of fun and colour at a refugee centre. The children were beaming and skipping down the hall.
“I can’t thank your readers enough for what they have done for these people. You are literally saving lives.”
Operation Orphan distributed aid and blankets to 48 children and 61 adults sleeping in two makeshift refugee centres in Cahul in one day alone last week.
The donations — which also included nappies, sanitary and personal hygiene products, clothes and sweets given by people all over the UK — provided a lifeline as temperatures dropped to -5C at night.
They were also a welcome boost for locals in Moldova who, already struggling to make ends meet in the poverty-stricken country, are doing their best to help refugees streaming across their border.
Brad’s team plans to distribute blankets across the region in the coming weeks.
And we are now making a call-to-knit again to help save more lives — and to send the message that the people of Ukraine have not been forgotten.
Brad added: “I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to continue.
“These blankets give people who have seen so much horror something they can hold on to — and I promise you, they give life.
“The majority of the people in the refugee centres in Moldova are women and children who have no interest in travelling to Western Europe, they want to go back home.
“They’ve only got the clothes on their backs and a few suitcases, whatever they could carry to help them get through this terrible time. A lot of these people had to walk across the border in freezing conditions after being dropped off by men who were heading back to fight in the war.
“They were completely dazed and also heartbroken at having to say goodbye with no idea if they would ever see their husbands and fathers again.
I can’t thank your readers enough for what they have done for these people. You are literally saving lives.
Brad Moore, Operation Orphan’s managing director
“But they were also so relieved to be safe and away from the fighting.
“There was one lady I asked, ‘How are you?’ She immediately replied, ‘I’m safe’.
“Most of the refugees here are from the Ukrainian cities Odesa, Kyiv and Mykolaiv.
“The ones from Mykolaiv have seen a lot of fighting and they’re quite shell-shocked. It’s a mass movement of people and below the surface is a lot of pain.
“When we ask them, ‘Where are you going?’ Most of them say, ‘I want to go home’.
“That’s the cry and very few are wanting the opportunity to work in the West.
“There is a deep desire for home and to be reunited with the men they have left behind.”
Around 3,000 blankets have poured into Operation Orphan’s Nottingham HQ since we launched our Knit A Kid A Blanket campaign together with the Loving Hands knitting group in 2016.
We called on you to knit 6ft x 4ft washable blankets, in any colour combination, and you responded in your droves.
In the recent past your blankets have been handed out to hurricane survivors in Antigua in the Caribbean and Zimbabwe in Africa, to orphans in Eastern Europe — long before Russia invaded Ukraine — and to scores of needy children in the UK.
On Tuesday, our staff helped Brad load another van ahead of the next mercy mission to Moldova — a drive that can take up to five days.
Brad said: “These are people who have next to nothing in the best of times, as Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe.
“But they are pulling together to offer the refugees whatever they can afford to give.
“Just the other day I was told about a woman who earns 100 euros a month and she came and handed over ten euros and a little bit of bread.
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“Things like that remind you how many people are doing whatever they can to help — and your readers can lend a big hand by knitting more blankets.”
PICTURES of women and children fleeing the horror of Ukraine’s devastated towns and cities have moved Sun readers to tears.
Many of you want to help the five million caught in the chaos — and now you can, by donating to The Sun’s Ukraine Fund.
Give as little as £3 or as much as you can afford and every penny will be donated to the Red Cross on the ground helping women, children, the old, the infirm and the wounded.
Donate here to help The Sun’s fund
Or text to 70141 from UK mobiles
£3 — text SUN£3
£5 — text SUN£5
£10 — text SUN£10
Texts cost your chosen donation amount (e.g. £5) +1 standard message (we receive 100%). For full T&Cs visit redcross.org.uk/mobile
The Ukraine Crisis Appeal will support people in areas currently affected and those potentially affected in the future by the crisis.
In the unlikely event that the British Red Cross raise more money than can be reasonably and efficiently spent, any surplus funds will be used to help them prepare for and respond to other humanitarian disasters anywhere in the world.
For more information visit https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/disaster-fund
Source: Traumatised Ukrainian kids smile after receiving blankets knitted by kind Sun readers
Category: News, World News, Features, Print Features, The Sun Newspaper, Ukraine war
