I have known this family personally for more than 20 years. I met Ksyusha in secondary school and we have been very good friends ever since. Ksyusha, her three children and her mother lost their home, it was bombed, and they had to flee Ukraine without even taking their luggage with them. We will help them to get to Belgium to start a new life. But there are more than 25 families around us with the same story and I decided to collect donations for these families to help them start a new life.

I add here another picture of my friend from Ukraine. She lost her job and her home, and has to hide from bombs with her two children in the basement right now.

At Ukraine’s borders with Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova, huge numbers of people are arriving with only what they can carry. Many of them are women and children. In many places, there are long waits to cross and scant facilities waiting for them on the other side, with temperatures dropping below freezing overnight.

Your donation today will go towards meeting the immediate needs of people affected by this war, who are vulnerable, frightened and uncertain about what the immediate future holds.