UKRAINE
We have been sending Teddy Bears to Ukraine since April 2022, with our partners Fluid Mind. In April we sent 1280 Teddy Bears and a further 1435 in May
Initially our Teddy Bears were given out by our Partner staff and other local volunteers to the children in need, but more recently we have been collaborating with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Our Teddy Bears are proving very helpful in bringing comfort to traumatised children who have often been separated from family members in the conflict situation. The staff are finding that being able to give a child something to hug can be useful when they are trying to gather information such as a name.
The shipment of Teddy Bears that left late January 2023 have safety arrived and are being distributed. Many of these Teddy Bears were donated by Bristol Bears rugby fans at the pre-Christmas home fixture at Ashton Gate.
In February 2024, 1,450 Teddy Bears started the journey from UK to Ukraine where we anticipate they will be handed directly to children in Lviv, Kyiv and Poltava Oblasts and bring great joy and fun to their new owners
I’m absolutely delighted that The Teddy Trust is happy to collaborate with us, sending Teddy Bears for children who have experienced the horrors of war, often displaced, separated from family or war orphans, with our consignments of pre-hospital trauma care equipment and training for the people of Ukraine, to Lviv, Kyiv and Poltava oblasts Ukraine, so this helps us add a crucial dimension to the humanitarian aid that’s desperately needed; helping us to focus as much on children’s mental health as the pre-hospital trauma care equipment and training we provide to frontline medics and civilian first responders. The Teddy Bears have been handed directly to children in Lviv, Kyiv and Poltava oblasts and bring with them great joy and fun to their new owners.
