Special report - Settings collect donations for families in war-torn Ukraine

• Nurseries and their families show solidarity with Ukraine

As the Russian invasion in Ukraine enters a second month, early years settings around the country have united in support, by collecting donations and fundraising for refugee children and families, and those still living in the war-torn country. Nursery World spoke to some of them to find out how they are showing their solidarity.

Victoria Nursery in Harborne, Birmingham

‘Parents’ and staff generosity has been overwhelming,’ said nursery manager Dolly Sunskyte, who put a callout to parents for donations to go to a Ukrainian refugee centre in Lithuania.

‘We collected so much that we had to split the donations in half,’ she said.

For Sunskyte, the refugee crisis is close to home. Her dad works as a driving instructor at Marijampoles Profesinio Rengimo Centras, a college in Lithuania, where the students’ accommodation has been turned into temporary housing for refugees arriving from Ukraine.

The centre is hosting refugee families for the first 72 hours while their paperwork is sorted and permanent accommodation is found. ‘This means women and children will be arriving there with very little belongings,’ she told Nursery World.

‘A lot of Lithuanians have relatives in Ukraine,’ she said, adding that she knows people in Lithuania who are bringing people from the Polish border.

‘Lithuania and Ukraine are close in terms of history and support. Ukraine supported us 30 years ago in 1991,’ she said, explaining that Lithuania was the first country to break free from the Soviet Union.

She put out a call to parents for donations and the nursery collected toiletries and medical supplies – including formula, nappies, shower gel, sanitary products and 70 adult and 100 children’s toothbrushes.

She said, ‘People really wanted to do something and kept donating loads and loads. We didn’t think there would be a lot – but half our staff room was filled. We aren’t collecting clothes, as more than 50 lorries’ worth of clothes were collected over the first two days in Lithuania, but hygiene supplies and formula milks are running low now and will be needed for a long time.

‘We knew there was a need for non-dairy formula, people were running out of nappies and formula. Mums are struggling to breastfeed because of the stress.

‘We sent off two large parcels full of babies’ formula, nappies, toothbrushes, hygiene products, teething powders, colouring books and other necessities to Marijampole refugees’ centre.

‘The company that took parcels to Lithuania is a Lithuanian logistics company called Toras LT – and they did this free of charge, as it was donations.’

Victoria Nursery in Birmingham sent donations to Marijampoles Profesinio Rengimo Centras in Lithuania, which has been turned into temporary housing for refugees

She added, ‘And we have another two large parcels to deliver to Wolverhampton – to the Association of Ukrainian Women in Great Britain (AUW), who then send directly to Ukraine to support those who are living there still.’

She said one of the setting’s parents has kindly offered his van to drive them to the AUW.

She said, ‘It’s so horrible to read what’s going on and we wanted to do something for those mums and children.

‘It is very scary. We spoke to the children. How do we explain it? Bringing the donations helped to explain it. One child was saying, “Russia is being very greedy.” For children, they might be scared.

‘We covered it as a large topic. We explained that we were doing something nice, for children who can’t go to their nurseries and [things you would need] if you leave home quickly. The pre-school children saw the parcels going into the van.’

The nursery children also made pictures that were sent attached to the parcels.

The delivery has now arrived in Lithuania, and Sunskyte’s father has told her the nursery children’s pictures now hang in the refugee centre.

Little Angels Day Care, Withdean, Brighton

Gift bags for Ukrainian refugees put together by Little Angels Day Care in Brighton

Sara Demetriou, owner of Little Angels Day Care Nursery in Withdean, Brighton, saw a plea on Instagram for donations to be dropped in Hove to support the children of Ukraine.

An email was sent to the parents at the nursery that morning asking for donations to be brought in to Little Angels by Friday. Blankets, soft toys, colouring books and crayons flooded in and were packaged up by the nursery staff.

More than 50 gift bags were ready to be sent to Poland for Ukrainian refugee children. Nursery manager Sam Goodman said, ‘I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our families. I originally thought we may get five or six bags together, but over 50 children will now receive a gift bag from us and hopefully will know we are thinking of them.’

She added, ‘We have a really good relationship with our parents. We saw a shout-out on Instagram to make up bags with certain items that were needed. It’s amazing the amount people brought in.’

Responding to a campaign co-ordinated by local businesses, the parcels have now been sent via the Sussex Humanitarian Convoy to Ukraine.

In explaining to the children what they were doing, Goodman added, ‘We’ve done Christmas boxes before – we explained that we are doing something for children that don’t have as much as we do. We’re sending them something nice.’

Snapdragons Nurseries

Children at Snapdragons Nurseries planted sunflowers and snapdragons to show unity with Ukraine

Snapdragons Nurseries has so far raised more than £2,000 for Unicef’s appeal for Ukraine through donations and bake and plant sales, all with a Ukrainian theme – and the nursery owners have agreed to match the amount raised before the end of March up to £5,000. The group is planning to continue supporting Unicef UK as one of its primary charities to support its work across the world ‘For Every Child in Danger’.

At Snapdragons’ Corsham nursery, children made yabluchnyk (apple sponge) and osyne gnizdo (sweet buns, or wasps’ nest buns), and for lunch they tried borscht (beetroot and cabbage stew) with pampushky (garlic buns). And they all wore blue and yellow, the colours of Ukraine’s national flag.

Mary Llewellin, business development manager at Snapdragons, said, ‘Children have been planting sunflower seeds and snapdragons to show our unity, and also taking the plants home to parents.

‘We will approach any activities involving the children at nursery in the way that we normally celebrate other countries and cultures, through food, colours, stories and pictures. Because of the age of our children, we won’t touch on any upsetting concepts or explanations of the conflict.’

The nursery group has a Ukrainian member of staff who is bringing Ukrainian dancing and music to the setting, as well as several Polish staff.

‘We want to show our solidarity. In Poland, some staff have families living very near the border, so the refugee situation is very evident,’ Llewellin added.

The nursery group also hopes to go further and offer sanctuary directly to a refugee family.

The group’s Shirehampton nursery near Bristol is set in large grounds and has a one-bedroom cottage on the site. Llewellin said, ‘I had the idea that we could offer the cottage for Homes for Ukraine and the owners of Snapdragons agreed we could use it. I’ve registered it on the website and am trying to work through the bureaucracy.’

Children from Snapdragons' Shirehampton nursery outside the one-bedroom cottage that is being offered through the Homes for Ukraine scheme

While more than 150,000 people in the UK have registered expressions of interest to host refugee families as part of the Government scheme, when Nursery World went to press (24 March) it was still unclear how this will work in practice.

• Read early years expert Tamsin Grimmer on How to Talk to Children About War