Kilbeggan students raise €4,600 for Ukraine

By Shane King (3rd Year)

The ongoing war and crisis in Ukraine has really hit home with members of the Student Council at Mercy Secondary School Killbeggan.

The harrowing images we see on the news every evening have inspired us to organise campaigns to try to help the people of Ukraine in any way we can.

Thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing their homes and travelling to the borders of nearby countries. Here they are met with tremendous support and this would not be possible without urgently needed supplies. At Mercy Kilbeggan we put a call out to the school community to donate supplies to our appeal. We had a great response to this appeal and all the supplies were collected by a local truck company that was bound for Poland. These supplies will assist the Polish people to provide support to the Ukrainian refugees.

On Friday March 11, the Student Council held a Blue and Yellow Non-Uniform Day and asked people to wear any blue and yellow clothing to show their solidarity with the people of Ukraine. People were asked to give a donation to our appeal and all the funds would be donated to UNICEF. We had a tremendous response to this fundraiser. On the day we raised a phenomenal €4,603.26.

All funds raised will be transferred to UNICEF. The charity is working across eastern Ukraine to scale up life-saving programmes for children. This includes trucking safe water to conflict affected areas, providing health and education supplies and working to make sure there is instant help for children and families in need.

Around 7.5 million children in Ukraine are in need of this urgent aid and we at Mercy Secondary School Kilbeggan were delighted to be able to contribute in some small way to help the Ukrainian people in their hour of need.