Kind-hearted pupils at a Perthshire primary school donated 23 bags of toiletries, clothes and toys to the Scottish Refugee Council recently to be given to youngsters from Ukraine.
The primary six pupils at Coupar Angus were moved to do something to help youngsters fleeing Ukraine following the invasion of their country by Vladimir Putin’s Russian forces earlier this year.
Teacher Lyn Harrison explained: “The class wanted to help children from Ukraine because when they were forced to leave their homes they couldn’t take very much with them.
“The pupils identified with the children and understood that it was a horrible situation for them to be in.
“This is a really empathic class and they did so much work for this – they came to us and said they wanted to do something to help, we said yes and then they organised the whole thing. We are very proud of them.”
The pupils decided to donate bags as they could fill them with different items and were delighted when Blairgowrie-based GLD donated 21 drawstring bags.
The bags contained toiletries, toys and books, hats, gloves and scarves, teddies, colouring books and pens and pencils and clothes for younger aged children.
They were labelled for age groups and genders.
And the class went around all the other classes in the school to explain what they were doing and why.
They put posters up around the school and collection boxes in classrooms, allowing the whole school to donate items.
Once all the items were collected, they were sorted and bagged up, and the pupils wrote notes to go into each of the bags in both Ukrainian and English welcoming the recipients to Scotland.
The Scottish Refugee Council (SRC) is an independent charity dedicated to supporting people in need of refugee protection.
Jen Anderson from the SRC visited Coupar Angus Primary School to pick up the bags ready for distribution to those arriving in Scotland from Ukraine.
She said: “This is a lovely gesture of friendship and unity from the children of Coupar Angus Primary School to children coming into primary schools in Perth and Kinross from Ukraine.
“I would like to say a massive thank you to the pupils for their efforts, it is really appreciated.
“It is wonderful that the local community wants to do these things for people coming from a different country.
“Our mission is to support asylum seekers and refugees and help make them feel welcome whenever and wherever they are coming from.
“This class has worked so hard to help us achieve that and we are very grateful to them.”
