Pair from London and Essex raising money for 'kindness backpacks' for Ukrainian child refugees

Two British friends have raised more than £4,000 to pay for “kindness backpacks” to be given out to Ukrainian refugee children who have fled to Poland.

Stuart Thomas, from Essex, and Neil Spalding, from London, helped out earlier this month at a humanitarian aid centre set up at the Warsaw Expo Centre in Poland’s capital, where refugees stay briefly after leaving Ukraine before moving on to more permanent locations.

While there they were involved in putting together and distributing the so-called kindness backpacks.

The idea came from one of the women working at the centre, Marta Szyjkowska, and are designed to be both fun for the displace children as well as practical.

As most of those at the centre will undertake bus journeys of up to 40 hours to their next location, the bags contain things to keep them entertained on the trip such as toys and games, as well as gifts from shops including Claire’s Accessories and bars of chocolate.

The backpacks will also function as schoolbags when the children reach their next destination.

Mr Thomas, 43 and from Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex, said: “Marta came up the idea that she wanted children, when they’re leaving the relocation centres, to have a couple of things.

“She wanted them to have something to do on that bus journey, and she also wants them to feel a moment of kindness – the fact that people really cared about them.”

Mr Thomas and Mr Spalding, 30, and from Clapton in east London, spent the first couple of days in Warsaw helping to put the bags together.

They were then given the job of handing out bags to youngsters leaving the centre – the first time they had visited where the refugees were sleeping.

Mr Thomas added: “We turned the corner and I think in my life I’ve never just frozen by being so overwhelmed with emotion, because there’s people who are just… uncontrollable tears. You know when people cry but uncontrollably?

He said he had seen many similarities with his own sons, who are aged 11 and eight.

"A couple of these boys got off the bus together and one of them... he’s got all the Adidas sports stuff on and I was like ‘that’s just my boy there’.

“So I think the first time we found it exceptionally difficult and I’d say we’re pretty useless actually.”

During their week at the centre, Mr Thomas said the pair, who became friends through playing rugby and cricket together, helped to hand out between 400 and 500 bags.

But with stocks running low, they are now raising funds to be able to distribute more when they return to the centre next week.

Mr Thomas said the packs were “massively appreciated” by both the children who received them and their parents.

“We’re not changing the world and I completely get that, but it’s creating small moments of happiness,” Mr Thomas added.