St John’s sixth-form student organises Ukrainian appeal

St John’s Sixth-form Politics student, Natalie MacKenzie, who is herself a political refugee from Hungary, has instigated a school appeal to support the Ukrainian people. The appeal has already resulted in donations of over £1,900 to the nominated charities.

Natalie said, “I reached out to my teachers and senior staff to urge them to help without delay, and help they did. St John’s has now set up a fund to enable parents to donate through ParentPay, and all money raised will be evenly distributed to British Red Cross/Disasters Emergency Committee and UNICEF. We also plan to raise funds from charitable events such as bake sales. Additionally, St John’s is a local donation point for food, which will be passed to the Polish Educational and Cultural Centre in Swindon, and we have teamed up with Marlborough College who are accepting clothing and other necessary items. This way, we can support the charities that are helping Ukraine in terms of humanitarian aid.

My family are political refugees from Hungary, not due to war, but due to political turmoil in my homeland, which motivated me to become active in politics. I’m asking everyone to think of the children affected by the conflict in Ukraine; they don’t know what a war is, don’t know why they must abandon everything that is familiar to them, can’t understand why their fathers must stay behind and can’t understand why that hug before the train to safety needs to be extra long”.

St John’s Principal, Ian Tucker and Deputy Head of Year 12, Ms Willis, have written to parents and carers, outlining the school’s fundraising and food collection plans: “Many in our school and communities may be directly affected or have family or friends who are affected by the crisis in Ukraine; especially with 24-hour access to coverage of information from unfiltered social media platforms. As part of the school community, we feel it is important to give our students the opportunity to support families displaced by this conflict, either by non-perishable food or monetary donations”.

St John’s has also provided links to a range of online resources to enable parents to discuss the situation with their children. Click here to find out how to donate and find the online resources links.