Our Journey of Support
For over ten years, we’ve built important and unique relationships in Ukraine. Our relationship with Nizhyn Internat is one of the most valued.
Our journey began over a decade ago
Our Ukrainian relationship is a decade long. This first trip was during our school days, running a summer camp in the Northeast of the country. We were so lucky to have those experiences, something that was not a common opportunity for kids of our age. It truly was a unique chance to make relationships that you couldn’t have created in the UK, through a real cultural exchange.
After leaving school, we decided to continue to help run the camp, having made such good memories, connections and friendships in the area surrounding the site of the camp. It was something we knew we wanted to continue to do.
The friends and relationships that we made weren’t just with people our own age, but with community leaders in the region as well. Ukraine is still a young country in the sense of its modern sovereignty, and a lot of the younger generation have such incredible aspirations for their country – former students who are now our friends, have jobs and careers, which is amazing to see.
That is the nature of our relationship with Ukraine. Of course, it’s changed since then due of circumstances, but the long term goal has always been, and will always be, to be able to get the camp back on track. Without for the events of 2022, we would still be doing that.
The Internat
We’ve been in direct contact with the leadership of the Internat for a few years now. When we went to Ukraine for the first time in 2015 we raised some money during our visit; understandably with the war breaking out, we have put more of our money and efforts towards them. There’s no person more vulnerable in a society than individuals who require care in a place without the resources to provide it, especially during a conflict.
One of the reasons why we always wanted to try and help with the Internat is because the passion is truly there to help these kids. The people working there devote their entire lives to helping them, with many of the workers being underpaid and essentially living at the Internat to provide sufficient round-the-clock care. But the fact is, they don’t have the facilities that they need, and receive very little government funding.
The building itself is set within a complex, as a block of flats with gardens and a football court which is currently out of use after being cleared by the army for unexploded ammunitions from the 2022 invasion. It has a number of classrooms on the ground floor to provide wheelchair access, and in the last two years received enough funding for a single user lift to provide wheelchair accessibility, however this only goes to the first floor.
The main purpose of this fundraiser is to allow for the children and adults who are wheelchair bound or immobile to be able to leave the compound and go out into the community. They currently do this on a very small scale, and have to hire a vehicle each time, which is an incredibly high cost for them. It really can’t be underestimated how much this would transform the lives of the people who live there.
Friends of Nizhyn Internat 