An update on the School in a Bag rucksacks we fundraised for in 2022

Three years ago, our school fundraiser was for School In A Bag, with the aim of getting bags to children in Ukraine, which was newly at war. In May 2022, we packed and despatched over 300 School in a Bag rucksacks to Ukraine. Read more about this here

This picture below shows children in Ukraine, who have received rucksacks which were packed by pupils at King's Bruton.

Rebecca Dixon - Learning Support Teacher (and organiser of the School in a Bag initiative at King's Bruton)

An Update from the School in a Bag Team

This week, we acknowledge the three year anniversary of the war in Ukraine.  As we watched footage of the invasion in February 2022, it prompted a call to action which took on a two-phased approach:  

1. Support those families and children who were fleeing Ukraine to take up residence elsewhere as refugees.
2. Support the families and children who decided to stay at home and not leave.

Phase 1
Given the uncertainty and danger that naturally develops at the outset of conflict, our immediate response was to fund, pack and distribute SchoolBags to those who fled their homeland seeking refuge elsewhere. Funds from our Ukraine Crisis Appeal supported children in north west Romania (where our partners Te Aud Romania are located only 50 kms from the Ukrainian border at Siret) and the UK and Ireland where SchoolBags were sent to council hubs for distribution to Ukrainians resettling in to a new norm. We very quickly learned that SchoolBags were of paramount importance for children displaced by the war - they enabled children to continue their education to effectively establish routine in to their fractured lives whilst the contents gave children the resources to express their feelings providing an outlet for emotional trauma and grief. 

Phase 2
By the Autumn of 2022, our support switched to sending SchoolBags to Ukraine - an operation that involved two partner charities, Helping Hand For Ukraine (a division of the Chernobyl Children's Lifeline) based in Alton, UK and Eleon, a charity primarily based in Lublin in Poland. The process was as follows:

• Packed SchoolBags would be delivered to Helping Hand For Ukraine and once they had 440 (enough to fill a van), volunteers would make the 4-day drive to deliver them to storage facilities in Lublin. Then, gradually, aid runs including SchoolBags would make the drive east to the north-west region of Kyiv to be handed out to children and families.
• At first our contributions were infrequent, but from January until July last year, School in a Bag committed all of our UK packed SchoolBags to Ukraine. To date, 6,111 SchoolBags have made their way to Lublin.

The winters in the region where we are supporting families are severe. The area is currently under 2 metres of snow making roads impassable. It has been like this for months. At present, COVID is rife within the community and our partners are holding out until the Spring when warmer temperatures will melt the snow and longer daylight hours will make life a little more bearable. 

The logistics of the distributions
The SchoolBags are packed in to boxes of 4 per box in numerical order and the boxes for each SchoolBag pack are numbered. We control this part. Between leaving our HQ, being stored at Helping Hand for Ukraine in Alton, being loaded on to vans in batches of 440 SchoolBags and then being stored in Eleon, Poland, it was impossible to keep the SchoolBags in any sort of box numerical order. The SchoolBags are therefore being handed out randomly in dribs and drabs.  When we receive updates from helping Hand for Ukraine we can see multiple gaps in the database that they have collated and there is no numerical flow to it. Whilst this is frustrating, it is the nature of this project.

Yet despite all of the difficulties and incredibly dangerous and trying conditions, our partners are managing to deliver SchoolBags to children...often in ravaged conditions.

For the team here at School in a Bag, and indeed our on-the-ground distribution partners, it is always a joyous occasion when we receive images of SchoolBags that have reached their intended beneficiaries. But we all admit the images that are sent from Ukraine are extra special because we know the courage and commitment it has taken Eleon and their team to get the SchoolBags to the children and communities.

Thank you so much to everyone who funded and packed SchoolBags for Ukraine and thank you for your continued patience whilst our partners endeavour to get them distributed.  

The School in a Bag Team

#KSBCharity