Harpenden Trust’s Care Fund – Support for Ukrainian Refugees, Update

The Harpenden Trust's Care Fund continues to offer assistance to the Ukrainian refugees who are guests in Harpenden. 

The Home Visits team has been supporting 10 Ukrainian families in the district and we are engaged with a Town Council initiative to coordinate the help being given to our Ukrainian guests. We received a sizeable donation from the Town Council to help with Ukrainian refugees’ support whilst St Johns Church, Southdown recently held a music concert to raise funds from which we were given 50% of the proceeds, £600. 

In late July we decided to invite Ukrainian guests living in Harpenden to join our Family Outing to Wicksteed Park in August. It was decided to use a separate coach for them as we found out that they would love to have a day chatting in their own language rather than trying to maintain conversations in English. Everyone had a wonderful day and we had some lovely thank you notes from the Ukrainian families and their hosts. 

We were approached and funded by the Town Council, with additional funding from St John’s Church, to organise another trip for Ukrainian families during the Summer. We hastily chose a date at random - 24th August - which turns out to be Ukrainian Independence Day! Also it was very appropriate that the PPH coaches are yellow with blue writing and many of the guests wore a nod to yellow and blue. We wanted to go somewhere that might offer a glimpse of English history but still had attractions for different age groups. Wimpole Hall won as the National Trust were offering free entry to refugees. It was a sunny and very warm day and everyone enjoyed themselves although tired out by the end!

30 September 2022

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