Pair launch 'kindness backpacks' for Ukrainian children leaving Poland for new homes

Two friends from Hackney and Essex have raised more than £4,000 to fund "kindness backpacks" given out to Ukrainian refugee children in Poland.

Stuart Thomas, 43, from Clapton, east London and Neil Spalding, 30, from Stansted Mountfitchet, in Essex, travelled to Warsaw earlier this month to help out at a humanitarian aid centre set up in Poland’s capital.

The pair were involved in putting together and handing out the packs to children who have fled war-torn Ukraine and stay at the centre briefly before moving on to more permanent locations across Europe.

Marta Szyjkowska, who works at the centre, came up with the idea for fun and practical backpacks for children preparing for bus journeys of up to 40 hours.

The packs contain toys, games, gifts and bars of chocolate before functioning as schoolbags when the children reach their next destination.

Mr Thomas, who works in business-to-business exhibitions, said: "[Marta] 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."

The friends spent the first couple of days in Warsaw helping to put the bags together, then were given the job of handing out bags to youngsters leaving the centre.

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?

"I’ve got two young boys, I’ve got boys that are 11 and eight, and so a couple of these boys got off the bus together and one of them, my lad plays football all the time and this lad obviously did as well, 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.

To donate, www.gofundme.com/f/kindness-backpacks-for-children-of-ukraine