Photo by Bernard van Giessen

Our wonderful donors

Hitherto we have mostly written stories about the people who have been helped by the generous donations to our Ukraine Appeal. Now we want to tell you about some of our very many donors. We have received donations from many hundreds of kind and generous people, many of them new to the BEARR Trust, who heard about our appeal from friends, contacts, friends of friends and contacts of contacts.

Thanks to all this amazing generosity and compassion the appeal total has reached over £300,000, and we have spent 70% of it. All of it goes to beneficiaries – we cover all administrative costs and currency transfer fees ourselves.  We are truly grateful to everyone who has donated, whatever the size of the donation. Our partners in Ukraine and Moldova continue to work flat out, and we send them funds in relatively small ‘packages’ as and when they are able to disburse them. They are still evacuating vulnerable people from high-risk areas, providing shelter, medicines, food, bedding, hygiene goods, and supplies for babies and elderly people, and they are also setting up refugee and children’s centres, and providing psychological support and trauma therapy – of which much more is going to be needed in the future. 

Our donors contribute what they can, when they can, and some of them have organised imaginative events and had ideas that can make a big difference. For example, a donor in Ireland spent several months preparing for and organising a sale of rare and unusual plants in May, under the auspices of the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland, with all the proceeds going to the BEARR appeal. The event was supported by a group of garden societies and nurseries, and the Ukrainian Ambassador to Ireland was present on the day. A number of volunteers helped at the plant sale, making teas and running a raffle – and those alone made several thousand euros. The sale raised an amazing sum of over €25,000 (£20,000). 

Photo by Bernard van Giessen
Photo by Bernard van Giessen

Another very kind and generous donor, Ray Postill, is selling his art works, produced over his lifetime, with the proceeds going to our appeal. Here is the link to his website: https://artsforukraine.org.uk

From a talent show held by a Sunday School in Oxford to a cake sale by a fitness centre in Surrey, every one of these events and projects takes a lot of effort to organise and raises awareness of the situation and funds for the appeal!

Our own next fundraiser for the appeal is “Surgery on the front line in Ukraine” on 27 June – an on-line discussion featuring trauma surgeon David Nott in conversation with Bridget Kendall about his work in Ukraine. Don’t miss it – here is the link to sign up: https://bearr.org/2022/06/15/the-bearr-trust-and-david-nott-foundation-present-surgery-on-the-front-line-in-ukraine-david-nott-in-conversation-with-bridget-kendall/

We hope to see many of our supporters there!

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