New clothing to be delivered to Ukraine children

David Pond will be delivering new clothing and shoes to orphaned children in Ukraine for Christmas

New coats, shoes and hooded jackets are being gifted to orphaned children in Ukraine, ahead of Christmas after a fundraising campaign.

David Pond, from Kingsand, Cornwall, helped set up a crisis response centre when the war in Ukraine began in February 2022 and has since raised funds to provide supplies, including medical equipment and humanitarian aid for the country.

He said the gifts would be delivered to 80 children, ranging from two to 19 years old, at an orphanage in Lviv, on 12 December.

Mr Pond said: "This is a wonderful opportunity to give children, who are suffering significant turmoil, a set of brand new clothes."

Volunteers said the gifts were personal to each child

Mr Pond, former commodore of HMS Raleigh, said about £350,000 had been raised for the project enabling him to deliver supplies, described as missions, to Ukraine four to five times a year.

Volunteers helped wrap and organise the gifts at Maker with Rame Institute on Sunday and described it as "very personal" because each gift is labelled with a child's name.

Maggie Cardew, who has been contributing to the efforts, said: "You come across the names of the children, and you immediately think about the children themselves."

Lesley Pond said each child would receive a winter coat

Mr Pond's wife Lesley helped select and order the new items which cost about £100 per child meaning they had to raise about £8,000 in total.

She said thanks to the funds each child would receive a padded winter coat, their own hooded jumper and waterproof shoes and they had received all the sizes of the children at the orphanage.

"We've been matching up Ukrainian sizes, feet and height," she said.

"The coats have lovely fur hoods because it is super cold compared to Cornwall."

Jane Baker said the new items were better than them being "hand me downs"

Jane Baker who was helping to wrap the gifts said Mr and Mrs Pond wanted brand new items rather than "hand me downs".

"The children are getting the respect any of our children may get," she said.

"I couldn't imagine anything worse than living in a war-torn country, particularly at Christmas time."