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Children from the Polish School at St Malachy's Primary School in Newry have prepared 'goodie bags' for children who are being evacuated from Ukraine due to the war in their homeland. The goodie bags along with other supplies collected by the school will be sent to the city of Przemysl in the south of Poland, close to the border with Ukraine. They also expressed their solidarity with their neighbours by painting one hand in Polish colours and the other in Ukrainian colours at school on Saturday.
As Monika Plotan a board member from the Polish School explains "This is an initiative from children to children. We wanted the children in our school to understand what's happening there. The children from Ukraine are coming with nothing. They left home, they don't have a home anymore, and we just wanted to show our support, tell our children what it means. They brought their own money to to build these goodie bags for children from Ukraine. They did lovely cards with a text written that we support them, children are supporting them. They are trying to give something from themselves to the other children who are coming to Poland at the moment. There are some sweets there are some colorings, something to make these children smile even for a second."
Following the start of the war last week school members thought the best thing they could do would be to to help people who are coming from Ukraine to Poland.
Plotan explains "At the moment we'll have 1 million people who came across the border, mainly women and children. So we thought to organize some donations. First we thought about money donation, but I think people would prefer to go to the shop, buy something, just to do something, not only just click or bank transfer money. It's unreal how generous people are. This is just the donations from some Polish people and parents of children who are going to St Malachy's School."
At present they are sorting everything into different boxes. They don't need any more clothes but have a list of items that are required, like first aid supply, foods, cosmetics, personal care items. You can also make a financial donation. Funds raised will be sent to an organisation working directly with the Ukraine Embassy in Poland in Warsaw and organisers will keep everyone up to date with the amount raised via social media on POLSKASZKOLA
The Polish School in Newry operates every Saturday and has 60 children. There are four classes starting with the youngest three/four years old.
The whole idea of the Polish school is to give the children a little bit more information about Poland, about Polish roots, help them learn Polish language, Polish culture, and a little bit of history. They also learn biology and geography in Polish.
Most of the children at the school were born here with just around 10% born in Poland so it's more diffucult for them to be fluent in Polish.
Ploton said "Some of the children are from mixed families, one parent from Poland, the other parent is from here, so obviously it's even more difficult for them to learn Polish because it's just one parent at home speaking Polish so it's giving them an opportunity to hear polish here and learn a language."
The School is a nonprofit organization with a five member board. The board is responsible for all the paperwork getting money from funders and organising events. All decisions are made between teachers, boards and the parents committee.
Ploton adds "We know all each other we are quite like a family to be honest."
You can donate at the school or do a bank transfer via the account details below:
Account Name: Polish Supplementary.
Ulster Bank Account Number: 10474858
sort code: 98-11-40
